Photoproduction of Pi-Meson Pairs

Abstract

The cross section for photoproduction of pion pairs from hydrogen has been calculated from the cut-off static theory, assuming the energy is sufficiently low that one of the mesons is produced in an $S$ state, the other in a $P$ state. It is shown that the cross section for this process can be expressed exactly in terms of the $P$-wave scattering phase shifts, provided the $S$-wave meson-nucleon interactions and the meson-meson interaction can be neglected. The theoretical predictions obtained here are in general agreement with preliminary experimental results.