Low energy scattering and photoproduction of $\eta$-mesons on deuterons

Abstract

Photo-production of $\eta$-mesons and their collisions with light nuclei are studied within the Alt-Grassberger-Sandhas (AGS) formalism for different parameters of $\eta N$ interaction. A three-body resonance or a quasi-bound state is found close to the $\eta d$ threshold. Expected manifestation of this resonant behavior of $\eta d$ elastic scattering in various processes involving $\eta d$-system in their final states was found in calculations of the $\gamma d \to \eta d$ reaction in the framework of modified AGS equations. These calculations revealed peaks in the energy dependence of the total cross-section almost at the same energies as in the elastic $\eta d$ scattering. Meanwhile, such peaks did not appear in the impulse approximation (i.e. when $\eta d$ resonance was not taken into account). This sheds some light on the nature of the enhancement of $\eta$ photo-production on deuteron observed recently in the low energy experiments.