Production of pionic atoms with the (e,e') reaction

We study the reaction e+A→e'+(Aπ-) with the π- bound in the nucleus as a means of producing deeply bound pionic states of heavy nuclei so far unobserved. Although the cross sections found can be rather large, they are overwhelmed by the background from the inclusive (e,e') reaction, which makes the reaction not well suited for the investigation of these pionic states. However, the ratio of signal to background is much bigger in light nuclei and the reaction could be used to observe pionic states of unstable light nuclei, provided the resolution in the beam and detectors is of the order of the width of the pionic state