A Microscopic Calculation of Photoabsorption Cross Sections on Protons and Nuclei

Abstract

A recently developed model for $ρ$-meson propagation in dense hadronic matter is applied to total photoabsorption cross sections in $γ$-proton and $γ$-nucleus reactions. Within the vector dominance model the photon coupling to the virtual pion cloud of the nucleon, two-body meson-exchange currents, as well as $γ$-nucleon resonances are included. Whereas the $γp$ reaction is determined by the low-density limit of the model, higher orders in the nuclear density are important to correctly account for the experimental spectra observed on both light and heavy nuclei over a wide range of photon energies, including the region below the pion threshold. In connection with soft dilepton spectra in high-energy heavy-ion collisions we emphasize the importance of photoabsorption to further constrain the parameters of the model.