Development of Short-Lived Beams for Nuclear Physics Research*

The CLAS Collaboration has recently published the results of a measurement of the elastic scattering process Λp→Λp. This analysis required that the “beam” Λ came from the process γp→K⁺Λ, restricting both its momentum range and flux. To increase both the flux and momentum range of the beam Λ, we are developing a procedure to use inclusively produced Λs from the process γp→ΛX, inferring the properties of the beam Λ from the final-state particles. We are using the process pp→pp with this same approach to verify this technique. The beam flux is determined in a separate analysis of the same dataset, requiring only a single proton. The effective target thickness is determined by a simple geometrical calculation. A peak at m_X=0.938 GeV/c² in the missing mass plot of the process Xp→pp is evidence for the pp elastic scattering process. This enables us to test directly our ability to use the inferred beam properties to determine the beam flux and the effective target thickness. A parallel analysis of the process Λp→Λp using an inclusively produced beam will test our ability to deal with the effect of the decay of the short-lived beam particle. This talk will present the motivation behind this research, discuss the current status of our analysis, and future applications of this technique.