Baryon Spectroscopy at ELSA and at MAMI - selected results

Department of Physics, University of Basel, CH4056 Basel, Switzerland

^a e-mail: Bernd.Krusche@unibas.ch

Published online: 6 May 2014

Abstract

Spectroscopy of baryons and their excited states plays a key role for our understanding of the strong interaction in the non-perturbative regime. Both, in theory and in experiment, large progress has been made during the last few years. The rapid developments in lattice gauge calculations and the application of the Dyson-Schwinger equation to QCD have opened new perspectives for the interpretation of the excitation spectrum of the nucleon. In parallel, large efforts have been undertaken world-wide, and are still running, to investigate excited nucleon states experimentally, in particular with photon-induced production of mesons. In the present contribution we discuss such experimental programs conducted at the tagged photon beams of the electron accelerators ELSA in Bonn and MAMI in Mainz. These programs are diverse. They include the measurement of cross sections, single- and double polarization observables for single meson production and production of meson pairs off free protons as well as of quasi-free nucleons bound in the deuteron (and sometimes other light nuclei).