π−pElastic Scattering in the Energy Range 300-700 MeV

Differential cross sections for elastic $\pi -p$ scattering were measured at eight energies for positive pions and seven energies for negative pions. Energies ranged from 310 to 650 MeV. These measurements were made at the 3-GeV proton synchrotron at Saclay, France. A beam of pions from an internal BeO target was directed into a liquid-hydrogen target. Fifty-one scintillation counters and a matrix-coincidence system were used to measure simultaneously elastic events at 21 angles and charged inelastic events at 78 $\pi -p$ angle pairs. Events were detected by coincidence of pulses indicating the presence of an incident pion, scattered pion, and recoil proton, and the results were stored in the memory of a pulse-height analyzer. Various corrections were applied to the data and a least-squares fit was made to the results at each energy. The form of the fitting function was a power series in the cosine of the center-of-mass angle of the scattered pion. Integration under the fitted curves gave values for the total elastic cross sections (without charge exchange). The importance of certain angular-momentum states is discussed. The ${\pi }^{-}-p$ data are consistent with a $D_{13}$ resonant state at 600 MeV, but do not necessarily require such a resonant state.