Pion cross section measurements on alignedHo165in the (3,3) resonance region

The removal cross section $\sigma \left(\Omega \right)$ for the interaction of ${\pi }^{+}$ and ${\pi }^{-}$ with aligned ${}_{}{}^{165}{}_{}{}^{}\mathrm{Ho}$ has been measured at $E_{\pi }=115, 165, \mathrm{and} 240$ MeV employing a single crystal holmium target with a nuclear alignment $B_2=-0.44\mathrm{}$. The range of $\Omega$ was from 0.05 to 0.55 sr. The data on $\sigma \left(\Omega \right)$ and $\Delta \sigma \left(\Omega \right)$, the difference between the aligned and unaligned cross sections, are compared with the predictions of a coupled-channels optical model calculation employing parameters from recent muonic x-ray data.