Eur. Phys. J. A (2008) 37: 69-80
https://doi.org/10.1140/epja/i2008-10622-6

Regular Article — Theoretical Physics

η′ meson production in nucleon-nucleon collisions near the threshold

¹ Forschungszentrum Dresden-Rossendorf, PF 510119, 01314, Dresden, Germany
² Bogoliubov Laboratory of Theoretical Physics, JINR, 141980, Dubna, Russia

^* e-mail: kaempfer@fzd.de

Received: 12 April 2008
Revised: 29 May 2008
Published online: 8 July 2008

Abstract

The production of η′ mesons in the reactions pp → ppη′ and pn → pnη′ at threshold-near energies is analyzed within a covariant effective meson-nucleon theory. The description of cross-section and angular distributions of the available data in this kinematical region in the pp channel is accomplished by including meson currents and nucleon currents with the resonances S ₁₁(1650), P ₁₁(1710) and P ₁₃(1720). Predictions for the pn channel are given. The di-electron production from subsequent η′ Dalitz decay η′ → γγ ^* → γe ⁺ e ⁻ is also calculated and numerical results are presented for intermediate energy and kinematics of possible experiments with HADES, CLAS and KEK-PS.