Feasibility Test Run of C-12(e,e'K+) Reaction at Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility

The high quality and high duty factor (100%) electron beam at Jefferson Lab offers an opportunity to broaden their view of hypernuclear physics by studying the (e,e(prime)K+) reaction with high resolution. The present data represent a feasibility study of such a reaction on a carbon target. The test run was carried out during experiments E91-16 (Electroproduction of Kaons and Light Hypernuclei) and E93-18 (Kaon Electroproduction on p(e,e(prime)K+)Y). These two experiments used liquid deuterium and hydrogen targets, respectively. There exist data on an aluminum target for the background calibration of the liquid targets which are suitable also for a feasibility study of electroproduction of hypernuclei. These data are still under analysis. The goal of this test run is to evaluate issues concerned with the electroproduction of hypernuclei. These issues include: (1) the quasi-free production rate, which had not been measured previously, (2) random coincidence background, (3) keon identification over a possibly large hadronic background, and (4) possible evaluation of the production rate of the bound hypernuclear structures. This test run will supply significant knowledge for running high quality hypernuclear experiments at Jefferson Lab. The spectroscopy of hypernuclei has been studied mainly in two ways: the strangeness-exchange reaction (K-, π-), and associated strangeness production (π+, K+). The (e,e(prime)K+) reaction has the advantage of exciting both natural- and unnatural-parity states and the possibility of obtaining good energy resolution. The cross section for the (e,e(prime)K+) reaction is about a hundred times smaller than for the corresponding hadronic production reactions but it is compensated for by the availability of high intensity and high duty factor electron beams. In order to optimize the production rate, the kinematic setting requires both the scattered electron and kaon to be detected at very forward angles. The test run was not optimized for hypernuclear production, but it serves as an important technical evaluation for future hypernuclear programs at Jefferson Lab. The first high-resolution spectroscopy experiment on p-shell lambda hypernuclei is tentatively scheduled to run in 1999 in Hall C at Jefferson Lab