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Pion Parity

The experimental determination of the intrinsic parity of the pion is studied. For the charged pion, its parity was determined to be -1 from its absorption by deuterium. For the neutral pion, its parity was inferred to be -1 from its two-photon decay mode and the angles between electron-positron planes from its rare decay to electron-positron pairs. The pion is thus established to be a pseudoscalar particle with parity of -1.

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142 views2 pages

Pion Parity

The experimental determination of the intrinsic parity of the pion is studied. For the charged pion, its parity was determined to be -1 from its absorption by deuterium. For the neutral pion, its parity was inferred to be -1 from its two-photon decay mode and the angles between electron-positron planes from its rare decay to electron-positron pairs. The pion is thus established to be a pseudoscalar particle with parity of -1.

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Paco97
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© © All Rights Reserved
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Experimental determination of the pion parity

Francisco Martínez López

October 25, 2019

The experimental determination of the intrinsic parity of the π meson is studied in this work. Two
experimental situations are proposed, one for the charged pion and another for the neutral one.

1 Introduction As we are dealing with a strong process, the total


isospin is conserved, as well as the 3-component. We
The parity operator P̂ represents the operation of the know that the deuteron has I d = 0 and the pion has
spatial inversion of coordinates: I π = 1, so the total isospin of the initial state is I = 1.
So, the neutron pair should have total isospin I = 1.
P̂ Ψ(~
r ) = Ψ(−~
r ). (1) As the nucleon has isospin I n = 21 , this is the highest
combination for the isospin of two neutrons, and thus
It is clear from its definition that P̂ 2 = Iˆ. As a conse- the resulting isospin function will be symmetric.
quence, its eigenvalues are ±1. A function has well-
defined parity when it is a eigenfunction of the par- Now, the neutron pair will have total spin S = 0 or 1.
ity operator, and its corresponding eigenvalue is called We have therefore four combinations of two neutrons:
the parity P of it.
χ(1, 1) ∼↑↑,
The aim of this work is to find out the parity of the π 1
χ(1, 0) ∼ p (↑↓ + ↓↑) ,
meson. 2
(4)
χ(1, −1) ∼↓↓,
1
2 Intrinsic parity of the charged χ(0, 0) ∼ p (↑↓ − ↓↑) .
2
pion
The first three functions form a spin triplet with S = 1,
The intrinsic parity of the charged pion was experi- which is symmetric under interchange of particles,
mentally determined through the observation of ab- while the last one forms a singlet with S = 0, antisym-
sorption of slow negative pions in deuterium: metric under interchange. Therefore ths symmetry of
the spin function goes as (−1)S+1 .
π− + d → n + n. (2)
Lastly, the symmetry under interchange of coordi-
As we know, the spin of the deuteron is s d = 1 and the nates of the spatial function goes as (−1)L , being L
one of the pion is s π = 0. From mesic X-ray emission the orbital angular momentum of the neutron pair. As
after the capture, we infer that it took place from a S- neutron are fermions, the total wavefunction must be
state of the pion referred to the deuterium nucleus. antisymmetric. In terms of total spin and orbital angu-
Thus, the initial state has a total angular momentum lar momentum, this can be written as (−1)L+S+1 = −1.
J = 1. In other words, L + S must be even.

The total angular momentum of the resulting neutron If S = 0 then L must be even in order to make L + S
pair will be J = S + L. Considering the two neutrons even. But then the total angular momentum J can
as non-relativistic, their wavefunction may factorize only take even values and we know, due to conserva-
as product of a spatial function, a spin function and tion of total angular momentum, that it should be 1.
an isospin function: Thus, we must have S = 1, and so L is odd. As we have
J = 1, the only acceptable value is L = 1.
Ψ = ψ(~
r ) χ(S, S 3 ) φ(I, I 3 ). (3)

1
EXPERIMENTAL DETERMINATION OF THE PION PARITY

bosons, but the first one is even under space inversion


and the second is odd.

We are dealing with an electromagnetic process, so the


parity must be conserved. Thus, the first expression
requires the pion to have positive parity and parallel
polarizations for the photons, with intensity I (φ) ∝
cos2 φ. The second function requires the pion to have
negative parity and orthogonal polarizations for the
photons, with intensity I (φ) ∝ sin2 φ.

As measuring directly the polarizations of the photons


is not viable, we can take a look to the rare decay:

π0 → (e + + e − ) + (e + + e − ). (7)

Here, each virtual photon converts into an electron-


positron pair (Dalitz pair). The plane defined by each
pair is predominantly that of the polarization. So,
measuring the angle between the planes of the Dalitz
pairs will allow us to determine the parity of the neu-
tral pion (Figure 1). So, as in the case of the charged
Figure 1: Plot of weighted frequency distribution of pion, the parity of the neutral pion is found to be
angle between planes of polarization (after P π0 = −1.
Plano et al. 1959).

4 Conclusions
Since both deuteron and nucleon have parity +1, the
The pion is what is called a pseudoscalar particle, be-
parity of the final state is P nn = (−1)L = −1, and there-
cause it is described by a wavefunction with the trans-
fore the intrinsic parity of the charged pion is P π± =
formation properties associated to pseudoescalars,
−1.
i.e. it is invariant under rotations but changes sign
when the parity transformation is applied.
3 Intrinsic parity of the neutral
This behaviour can also be theoretically predicted
pion from its quark content. A meson consist in a quark and
an antiquark, and these must have opposite parity.
The intrinsic parity of the neutral pion is inferred from Thus, the parity of a meson turn out to be P = (−1)L+1 ,
the two-photon decay: being L the orbital angular momentum of the quark-
antiquark bound state. As the pion is the lightest me-
π0 → 2γ. (5) son, it should be the lowest bound state, so L = 0.
Therefore we have P π = −1 as expected.
In the pion rest frame, the resulting photons will have
momentum vectors ~ k and −~ k and polarization vec-
tors ~ε1 and ~ε2 respectively. As the photons propagate References
through the vacuum, the polarisation vectors are or-
thogonal to ~ k. Both pion and photon have spin S = 0 [1] Perkins, D. (2000). Introduction to high energy
and both photons are identical bosons. physics (4th ed., pp. 65-70). Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press.
The simplest wavefunctions describing the photon
[2] Plano, R., Prodell, A., Samios, N., Schwartz, M.,
pair will have the form:
& Steinberger, J. (1959). Parity of the Neutral Pion.
ΨI (2γ) = A I (~ε1 ·~ε2 ) ∝ cos φ, Physical Review Letters, 3(11), 525-527. doi: 10.
(6) 1103/physrevlett.3.525
ΨII (2γ) = A II (~ε1 ×~ε2 ) · ~
k ∝ sin φ.

Here, A I and A II are constants and φ is the angle


between the polarization planes. These two func-
tions are even under interchange, as they describe two

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