Measurement of the Polarized Structure Function $σ_{LT^\prime}$ for Pion Electroproduction in the Roper Resonance Region

Abstract

The polarized longitudinal-transverse structure function $σ_{LT^\prime}$ measures the interference between real and imaginary amplitudes in pion electroproduction and can be used to probe the coupling between resonant and non-resonant processes. We report new measurements of $σ_{LT^\prime}$ in the $N(1440){1/2}^+$ (Roper) resonance region at $Q^2=0.40$ and 0.65 GeV$^2$ for both the $π^0 p$ and $π^+ n$ channels. The experiment was performed at Jefferson Lab with the CEBAF Large Acceptance Spectrometer (CLAS) using longitudinally polarized electrons at a beam energy of 1.515 GeV. Complete angular distributions were obtained and are compared to recent phenomenological models. The $σ_{LT^\prime}(π^+ n)$ channel shows a large sensitivity to the Roper resonance multipoles $M_{1-}$ and $S_{1-}$ and provides new constraints on models of resonance formation.