Feasibility Study of Λd Elastic Scattering in Data From Photoproduction Off Deuteron

Experimental observables for hyperon-deuteron (Yd) scattering are important in the study of the YN interaction and the YNN three-body interaction. YN scattering experiments are lacking due to the short lifetime of hyperons. Currently, there is a very limited database for YN elastic scattering cross-sections and no data on Yd elastic scattering cross-sections. The high-luminosity Jefferson Lab experiment g13, in which a real-photon beam was incident on a liquid deuteron target, offers a unique opportunity to look for Yd elastic scattering signal, lambda d being the most promising. In such a dataset, the lambda is photoproduced off a deuteron in the target and scatters off another deuteron in the same target cell. The objective of this work is to search for a lambda d elastic scattering signal in a g13 data subset. By detecting the final state deuteron, and the proton and pion from lambda decay, reconstruction of the scattered and beam lambda invariant masses has been possible via four-momentum conservation in the elastic scattering process. A preliminary estimate of the number of events shows that about 4000 lambda d elastic scattering events should be in the g13 data set. Thus, it is feasible to extract the total and differential cross sections for several kinematic bins.