Investigation of near-threshold eta-meson production in the reaction {pi}{sup -}p{yields} {eta}n
Differential and total cross sections for eta-meson production in the reaction {pi}{sup -}p {yields} {eta}n were measured within the experimental program eta-meson physics implemented in the pion channel of the synchrocyclotron of the Petersburg Nuclear Physics Institute (PNPI, Gatchina). These measurements were performed at incident-pion momenta (700, 710, 720, and 730 MeV/c) in the vicinity of the threshold for the process under study by using the neutral-meson spectrometer designed and created at the Meson Physics Laboratory of PNPI. It is shown that, in the immediate vicinity of the threshold (685 MeV/c), the process of eta-meson production proceeds predominantly via S{sub 11}(1535)-resonance formation followed by the decay S{sub 11}(1535) {yields} {eta}n (the respective branching fraction is Br Almost-Equal-To 60%), but that, as the momentum of incident pions increases, the role of the D wave becomes ever more important. A detailed analysis of this effect indicates that it is due to the increasing contribution of the D{sub 13}(1520) resonance. Although the branching fraction of the decay of this resonance through the {eta}n channel is assumed to be very small (BR Almost-Equal-To 0.24%), the effect is enhanced owing to the interference between the D wave and the dominant resonance S{sub 11}(1535).