Analysis of the reaction π−p → π0ηn at 40 GeV/c beam momentum

Abstract The reaction π − p→ π 0 ηn ↳2y ↳2y has been analyzed using data of an experimental performed at the 70 GeV accelerator, with the NICE 648 channel hodoscope spectrometer for γ ray detection. Events with 4 γ seen are used for the analysis. A method is applied, which allows the determination of the number of π 0 η events for each mass, cos θ GJ and t bin. Mass spectra, t distributions and decay angular distributions for the π 0 η system are presented. The cross section for the production of A 2 0 is found to be 2.7 ± 1.1 μ b at 40 GeV/ c beam momentum. No indication of a resonant 1 − state in the π 0 η system is observed, in spite of the fact that this state is allowed for the π 0 η system on the same footing as the observed 0 + and 2 + resonances.