The Design of a Tagged Photon Spectrometer and its Use in Measuring the Photodisintegration of the Deuteron in the Energy Range 80-135 MeV

McPherson, Alan (1989) The Design of a Tagged Photon Spectrometer and its Use in Measuring the Photodisintegration of the Deuteron in the Energy Range 80-135 MeV. PhD thesis, University of Glasgow.

Abstract

The work described in this thesis was conducted at the Kelvin Laboratory, University of Glasgow and at the Institut Fur Kernphysik der Universitat Mainz, between October 1982 and January 1986. Presented in this thesis are new results on the photodisintegration of the deuteron in the photon energy range 80 - 135 MeV, the intermediate energy range, using tagged bremsstrahlung photons. This thesis also describes the design and construction details of the tagged photon spectrometer employed for the above measurements. The tagged photon spectrometer was specifically designed for the 180 MeV electron racetrack microtron at the Institut Fur Kernphysik der Universitat Mainz, MAMI - A. The system was designed to enable bremsstrahlung photons in the energy range 80 - 174 MeV to be tagged at fluxes of up to 5 x 10e7s-1. Using the tagged photon spectrometer the differential cross section for the reaction D(gamma,rho)n was measured for the photon energies in the range 80 - 135 MeV, and for the angular range thetap = 50 - 130 the center of mass proton emission angle. Results are presented for the selected photon energies of 87, 95, 104, 113, 122 and 128 MeV for the complete angular range. Measurements were performed simultaneously, for the quoted energy and angular ranges. The cross section information was then extracted using a purpose written data analysis program, which used time correlations and kinematic constraints to identify deuteron type events. Comparisons were made between several well known theoretical descriptions of deuteron photodisintegration and the presented data. The magnitude of the errors assigned to the measurements prevented any reliable indication in favour of one approach over another. However, the possibilities of a measurement of the cross section to an accuracy of better than 5 % look very promising using this apparatus.

• Item Type: Thesis (PhD)
• Qualification Level: Doctoral
• Keywords: High energy physics, Nuclear physics and radiation
• Date of Award: 1989
• Depositing User: Enlighten Team
• Unique ID: glathesis:1989-78016
• Copyright: Copyright of this thesis is held by the author.
• Date Deposited: 30 Jan 2020 15:43
• Last Modified: 30 Jan 2020 15:43
• URI: https://theses.gla.ac.uk/id/eprint/78016