Search for η-mesic He4 in the dd→He3nπ0 and dd→He3pπ− reactions with the WASA-at-COSY facility

Abstract The search for He 4 - η bound states was performed with the WASA-at-COSY facility via the measurement of the excitation function for the d d → He 3 n π 0 and d d → He 3 p π − processes. The deuteron beam momentum was varied continuously between 2.127 GeV/c and 2.422 GeV/c, corresponding to the excess energy for the d d → He 4 η reaction ranging from Q = − 70 MeV to Q = 30 MeV . The luminosity was determined based on the d d → He 3 n reaction and the quasi-free proton–proton scattering via d d → p p n s p e c t a t o r n s p e c t a t o r reactions. The excitation functions, determined independently for the measured reactions, do not reveal a structure which could be interpreted as a narrow mesic nucleus. Therefore, the upper limits of the total cross sections for the bound state production and decay in d d → ( He 4 - η ) b o u n d → He 3 n π 0 and d d → ( He 4 - η ) b o u n d → He 3 p π − processes were determined taking into account the isospin relation between the both of the considered channels. The results of the analysis depend on the assumptions of the N ⁎ (1535) momentum distribution in the anticipated mesic- He 4 . Assuming, as in the previous works, that this is identical with the distribution of nucleons bound with 20 MeV in He 4 , we determined that (for the mesic bound state width in the range from 5 MeV to 50 MeV) the upper limits at 90% confidence level are about 3 nb and about 6 nb for n π 0 and p π − channels, respectively. However, based on the recent theoretical findings of the N ⁎ (1535) momentum distribution in the N ⁎ - He 3 nucleus bound by 3.6 MeV, we find that the WASA-at-COSY detector acceptance decreases and hence the corresponding upper limits are 5 nb and 10 nb for n π 0 and p π − channels respectively.