Measurement of η meson production in γγ interactions and Γ(η-->γγ) with the KLOE detector

Abstract

We present a measurement of η meson production in photon-photon interactions produced by electron-positron beams colliding with \sqrt{s}=1 GeV. The measurement is done with the KLOE detector at the ϕ-factory DAΦNE with an integrated luminosity of 0.24 fb^{-1}. The e^+e^- --> e^+e^-η cross section is measured without detecting the outgoing electron and positron, selecting the decays η-->π^+π^-π^0 and η-->π^0π^0π^0. The most relevant background is due to e^+e^- --> ηγ when the monochromatic photon escapes detection. The cross section for this process is measured as σ(e^+e^- -->ηγ) = (856 \pm 8_{stat} \pm 16_{syst}) pb. The combined result for the e^+e^- -->e^+e^-η cross section is σ(e^+e^- -->e^+e^-η) = (32.72 \pm 1.27_{stat} \pm 0.70_{syst}) pb. From this we derive the partial width Γ(η-->γγ) = (520 \pm 20_{stat} \pm 13_{syst}) eV. This is in agreement with the world average and is the most precise measurement to date.

Version accepted by JHEP