Eur. Phys. J. Special Topics 198, 199-238 (2011)
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjst/e2011-01491-2

Review

Photoproduction of mesons off nuclei

Department of Physics, University of Basel, 4056 Basel, Switzerland

^a e-mail: Bernd.Krusche@unibas.ch

Received: 8 July 2011
Revised: 21 July 2011
Published online: 23 September 2011

Abstract

Recent results for the photoproduction of mesons off nuclei are reviewed. These experiments have been performed for two major lines of research related to the properties of the strong interaction. The investigation of nucleon resonances requires light nuclei as targets for the extraction of the isospin composition of the electromagnetic excitations. This is done with quasi-free meson photoproduction off the bound neutron and supplemented with the measurement of coherent photoproduction reactions, serving as spin and/or isospin filters. Furthermore, photoproduction from light and heavy nuclei is a very efficient tool for the study of the interactions of mesons with nuclear matter and the in-medium properties of hadrons. Experiments are currently rapidly developing due to the combination of high quality tagged (and polarized) photon beams with state-of-the-art 4π detectors and polarized targets.