Manifestation of the $a^0_0(980)-f_0(980)$ mixing in the reaction $\pi^-p\to\eta\pi^0n$ on a polarized target

Abstract

It is argued that the single-spin asymmetry in the reaction $\pi^-p\to a_0^0(980)n\to(\eta\pi^0)_S n$ is extremely sensitive to the mixing of the $a^0_0(980)$ and $f_0(980)$ resonances. It is shown that at low momentum transfers (namely, in any one of the intervals $0\leq-t\leq0.025,...,0.1$ GeV$^2$) the normalized asymmetry, which can take the values from -1 to 1, must undergo a jump in magnitude close to 1 in the $\eta\pi^0$ invariant mass region between 0.965 GeV and 1.01 GeV. The strong asymmetry jump is the straightforward manifestation of the $a^0_0(980)-f_0(980)$ mixing. For observing the jump, any very high quality $\eta\pi^0$ mass resolution is not required. The energy dependence of the polarization effect is expected to be rather weak. Therefore, it can be investigated at any high energy, for example, in the range from eight to 100 GeV.