Book Description

We have measured the absolute $rmsp2H(gamma,p)n$ angular distribution using the Illinois LASA detector at the Saskatchewan Accelerator Laboratory's tagged photon facility. Using 40 to 90 MeV photons, we aimed to measure the differential cross section with a statistical precision of typically 5% in angular bins of $3spcirc$ and energy bins of 2 MeV. Although our measurement achieved this goal, the contribution of systematic errors was larger than anticipated and thus compromised the utility of this result. Without these systematic errors, this measurement (when combined with the world data set) would have provided an extensive experimental data set with an accuracy which was better than the scatter between the various theoretical calculations for the interaction. Refinements to the treatment of the interaction would then have been testable. In particular, because the shape of the angular distribution in this energy regime is sensitive to meson exchange currents, it would have been possible to investigate the methods for incorporating these currents into calculations.