Speaker
Description
An experimental program has been approved at the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility to measure the (ep,e’K+)Y reactions to search for new excited baryon states in the mass range from 1.8 GeV to 3 GeV with CLAS12.
Data have been obtained using electron beams with energies of 6.5, 7.5, and 10.2 GeV, impinging upon a liquid hydrogen target in the CLAS12 center. Scattered electrons have been detected in a polar angle range of 2.5° to 4.5° by the Forward Tagger (FT) and at angles greater than 6° in the CLAS12 Forward Detector, allowing to measure the KY electro-production differential cross section and to probe the Q2 evolution of the nucleon resonances electro-couplings in the Q2 range from 0.05 GeV2 to 3 GeV2. By studying the Q2 evolution of electroexcitation amplitudes it will be possible to distinguish between regular N states and possible additional hybrid baryon states in the mass range of 2.0 GeV < W < 2.5 GeV where the lightest hybrid baryons are expected to be located based on LQCD studies of the N* spectrum. Preliminary results for KY electroproduction will be reported and prospects for future studies will be discussed.
