Axial U(1) dynamics in eta and eta' photoproduction

Abstract

We discuss the sensitivity of eta and eta' photoproduction near threshold to the gluonic OZI breaking parameters in the U_A(1)-extended effective chiral Lagrangian for low-energy QCD. Our coupled-channels analysis hints at a strong correlation between the gluon-induced contributions to the eta' mass and the low-energy pp -> pp eta' reaction and the near-threshold behaviour of the gamma p -> eta p cross-section.

Comments: 19 pages, 9 figures