Coherent photoproduction of π0- and η-mesons off 7Li

Coherent photoproduction of π0-mesons from threshold (Eth≈ 136 MeV) throughout the Δ-resonance region and of η-mesons close to the production threshold (Eth≈ 570 MeV for η has been measured for 7Li nuclei. The experiment was performed using the tagged-photon beam of the Mainz MAMI accelerator with the Crystal Ball and TAPS detectors combined to give an almost 4π solid-angle electromagnetic calorimeter. The reactions were identified by a combined invariant-mass and missing-energy analysis. A comparison of the pion data to plane-wave impulse modelling tests the nuclear mass form factor. So far coherent η production had been only identified for the lightest nuclear systems (2H and 3He . For 3He a large enhancement of the cross section above plane-wave approximations had been reported, indicating the formation of a quasi-bound state. The present Li data for η production agree with a plane-wave approximation. Contrary to 3He , neither a threshold enhancement of the total cross section nor a deviation of the angular distributions from the expected form factor dependence were observed.