Dielectron production in pion-nucleon reactions at intermediate energies

Abstract

Dielectron production in the $\pi N$ interaction at not large energies is studied. The dominant contribution of the $\Delta$-isobar creation in the intermediate state at incident pion momenta of about 0.3-0.4 GeV$/$c is shown. The experimental distributions over the angle and effective mass $M_{e^+e_-}$ of the $e^+e^-$ pair are described satisfactorily. This stimulated us to present theoretical predictions for the $M_{e^+e_-}$ distribution in the process $\pi^- p\rightarrow ne^+e^-$ at different incident momenta, which could be verified, for example, by the HADES experiments.