Recent experimental data on dijet cross section in diffractive photoproduction at HERA collider are analyzed with an emphasis on QCD factorization breaking effects. The possible sources of the contradiction in conclusions of H1 and ZEUS collaborations such as different hadronization corrections and different phase space of both analysis are studied.

<p> In the soft photon limit the bremsstrahlung cross-section is related to the corresponding elastic scattering cross-section in a model-independent manner. The cross-section for threshold photoproduction of pions becomes independent of the detailed pion-nucleon interaction if the ratio of pion to nucleon mass is made sufficiently small. These two results are a consequence of the gauge invariance of the scattering amplitude for a process involving one photon. We review the derivation of Low's bremsstrahlung theorem for spin-zero and spin-half particles, and outline an extension to all orders of photon energy. The theorem for photopion production is derived by the same method. A non-relativistic analogue to the Bremsstrahlung theorem is also considered.</p> / Thesis / Master of Science (MSc)

Deux voies de transfert cyclique d’électrons ont été décrites chez l’algue verte C.reinhardtii, une implique (PGRL1 et PGR5), l’autre une NADP(H)-plastoquinone oxidoréductase (NDA2). Le TCE participerait à la génération d’ATP et donc à l’équilibration de la balance énergétique cellulaire. Pour mieux comprendre la contribution du TCE à la photosynthèse, différents mutants affectés du TCE ont été étudiés. Dans un premier temps, la photosynthèse et la croissance du mutant pgrl1 de C. reinhardtii déficient dans la voie de TCE PGRL1-dépendente ont été caractérisées. A l’état stationnaire, la productivité en biomasse du mutant est similaire à celle du sauvage, dans une large gamme d’intensités lumineuses et de concentrations en CO2. Basé sur les effets d’inhibiteurs de la respiration mitochondriale sur l’activité photosynthétique, il a été conclu que la coopération avec la respiration mitochondriale et de la photo-réduction d’O2 compensaient l’absence du TCE-PGRL1 dépendent. Cette compensation résulte en une productivité normale de biomasse chez le mutant à l’état stationnaire. Dans la deuxième partie de l’étude, une souche sur-exprimant la NDA2 chloroplastique a été étudiée. Une augmentation de l’activité de réduction non-photochimique des plastoquinones (PQ) en aérobiose et une vitesse de production d’H2 accrue par la voie indirecte en anaérobiose ont été notées. Il a été conclu que la production d’H2 par la voie indirecte est limitée par la capacité de réduction des PQ, soit du fait de la faible disponibilité des donneurs d’électrons, soit du fait d’une activité enzymatique de NDA2 limitée. Ceux-ci contribuerait à améliorer une production d’H2 durable. / Photosynthetic organisms have developed complex mechanisms to ensure an optimal match between the energy supplied and the metabolic demand. Among these mechanisms, cyclic electron flow around PSI (CEF) has been proposed to generate additional proton motive force and participate in the supply of extra ATP for photosynthesis. Two pathways of CEF have been described in the green alga C. reinhardtii, one involving PGRL1 (and PGR5), and the other a NAD(P)H-plastoquinone oxidoreductase (NDA2). In order to better understand the contribution of CEF to photosynthesis, different mutants affected in CEF components were studied. First, photosynthesis and growth performances of a knock-out C. reinhardtii mutant (pgrl1) deficient in PGRL1-mediated CEF have been characterized. Steady-state biomass productivity of the pgrl1 mutant was similar to its wild-type progenitor under a wide range of illumination and CO2 concentrations. From the effects of mitochondrial respiration inhibitors on photosynthesis, it was concluded that increased cooperation with mitochondrial respiration, and increased light-dependent O2 photo-reduction compensates for the absence of PGRL1-CEF. Second, a transplastomic strains over-expressing NDA2 was studied. An increased activity of non-photochemical reduction of plastoquinones (PQ) in aerobiosis and increased rate of H2 production by the indirect pathway in anaerobiosis were reported. It was concluded that activity of the indirect pathway of hydrogen production is limited by the non-photochemical reduction of PQ, either by the pool size of electron donors, or by the activity of NDA2. These data contribute to improvement for the sustainable production of hydrogen.

Cette thèse présente une nouvelle étude ayant pour but de contraindre la contribution du gluon au spin 1/2 du nucléon. Cette analyse se place dans le cadre théorique de la pQCD colinéaire pour calculer des asymétries de section efficaces pour des hadrons inclusifs à grande impulsion transverse (pT>1 GeV/c) dans le régime de photoproduction quasi-réel (Q^2<1 GeV^2). Ces calculs sont réalisés jusqu'à NLO (Next-to-Leading Order) avec une inclusion prévue de resommation des gluons au seuil jusqu'à NLL (texit{Next-to-Leading Logarithm}), qui n'est pour l'instant fait que pour le cas non-polarisé. Cela rend les asymétries sensibles non seulement à la fusion photon-gluon ("gamma^* g") mais aussi à des processus de photon résolu tel que "q g" ou "g g".La mesure des asymétries est réalisée pour toutes les données de COMPASS de 2002 à 2011 avec un faisceau de muons polarisés à 160-200 GeV diffusé sur une cible de deuterium (LiD de 2002 à 2006) ou de proton (NH3 pour 2007 et 2011). Ces asymétries sont présentées en fonction de pT et de la pseudorapidité eta (pT dans [1,4] avec <pT^2> = 3 (GeV/c)^2, et eta dans [-0.1,2.4]).Les calculs de resommation n'étant pas terminés pour le cas polarisé, les mesures sont seulement comparés aux calculs théoriques en utilisant différents jeux de parametrisations de fonctions de distribution de parton polarisées ayant des valeurs de DeltaG assez étendues. Ces comparaisons sont ensuite utilisées pour évaluer le DeltaG des mesures.De façon complémentaire à cette analyse, une étude sur de nouveaux détecteurs, les pixel Micromegas, servant à pister le passage des particules, a été réalisée. Après certaines calibrations, ces détecteurs montrent des résultats prometteurs aussi bien en terme d'éfficacité qu'en terme de résolution temporelle et spatiale. / This thesis presents a new study aiming at constraining the gluon contribution DeltaG to the 1/2 nucleon spin. The collinear pQCD theoretical framework, on which it is based, deals with asymmetries calculated from cross-sections for single inclusive hadron in the regime of quasi-real photoproduction (Q^2<1 GeV^2) at high hadron transverse momentum (pT>1 GeV/c). These calculations are done up to Next-to-Leading order with a foreseen inclusion of Next-to-Leading logarithm threshold gluon resummation, only performed for the unpolarised cross-sections yet. This makes the asymmetries sensitive to the gluon polarisation not only through Photon Gluon Fusion ("gamma^* g") but also through resolved photon processes such as "q g" or "g g".The measurement of the asymmetries is performed for all the COMPASS data available from 2002 to 2011 with a polarised muon beam at 160-200 GeV scattered off a longitudinally polarised target of deuteron (LiD for 2002-2006) or proton (NH3 for 2007 and 2011). The asymmetries are presented in bins of pT and of pseudorapidity eta (p_T in [1,4]$ with <p_T^2> = 3 (GeV/c)^2, and eta in [-0.1,2.4]).Since the resummation calculations are not completed yet for the polarised case, the measurements are only compared with theoretical calculations using different parametrisation sets of polarised Parton Distribution Functions with a large range of different DeltaG. This comparison is then used to evaluate the DeltaG of these measurements.Complementary to this analysis, a study of new tracking detectors, the pixelised Micromegas, is performed. After calibration, it shows promising efficiencies and time and spatial resolutions.

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K+Λ photoproduction provides the best possibility for a model independent extraction of the photoproduction process and contributing resonances. To do this, it is vital that cross section measurements are well understood. This thesis presents pγ K+Λ differential cross sections from the reaction threshold, to an invariant centre of mass energy of 1.87 GeV. The data was taken at MAMI-C electron microtron facility in Mainz, Germany, during July 2007 and April 2009. The 1.5 GeV MAMI-C electron beam was used to produce an energy tagged bremsstrahlung photon beam with a maximum energy of 1.4 GeV and an intensity of 105γs-1MeV-1. The beam impinged upon a liquid hydrogen target, with reaction products detected in two segmented calorimeter arrays; the Crystal Ball detector and TAPS. This work pioneers a new method of K+ detection in segmented calorimeters, in which the K+ was identified from the signature of its weak decay inside the crystals of the calorimeter. This proved to be an excellent method of isolating K+ and accessing strangeness photoproduction channels, with good agreement between experimental and Geant4 simulated data. A novel method in seperating K+Λ and K+Σ0 final states was also developed by identifying the photon from the decay: Σ0 → Λγ. The intense photon beam at the MAMI-C facility enabled differential cross section data with greater invariant mass resolution than previous measurements. The new measurement near threshold imposes important constraints to effective field theories based on the approximate chiral symmetry of QCD. At higher centre of mass energies it also addresses the current problem of discrepant data sets and will form an important constraint on partial wave analysis for the nucleon excitation spectrum. As such, this work contributes to a major world wide programme aiming to extract the excitation spectrum of the nucleon and to understand the dynamics and interactions of its constituents. The greater statistics near threshold, and particularly at backwards K+ centre of mass angles will give new valuable constraints to contributions from meson and hyperonic resonances on the reaction mechanism. The high resolution of the photon beam (approximately 2 MeV) also allows the first search for narrow resonances coupling to KΛ final states. The differential cross sections give good agreement with Kaon-MAID partial wave solutions, apart from at backward angles close to threshold, where the data is lower. Near threshold, the data agrees with calculations from the chiral unitary framework of Borasoy et al, tending to be in better accordance with the model than previous data. No strong structure from potential narrow resonance states was observed over the centre of mass energy region of 1650-1700 MeV, where narrow structure has been observed in recent η photoproduction of the neutron.

In this thesis we present the work we have done to further the understanding of neutral pion photoproduction from the proton. Our work used heavy-baryon chiral perturbation theory to fourth order, and we explicitly include the ∆(1232) resonance using the delta power-counting scheme. We also test the effects of including and excluding D-waves, partial waves with orbital angular momentum quantum number of 2. We begin our discussion in chapter 1 with a brief history of nuclear physics before showing how current algebras and the partial-conservation of the axial-vector current (PCAC) can be used to describe low-energy hadronic interactions. To improve upon PCAC results, one can make use of chiral effective field theories, taking advantage of the chiral symmetry that is present in the limit of massless quarks. We formally introduce chiral perturbation theory (χPT) in chapter 2, discussing the power-counting problem that arises once baryons are included, and present two different approaches to overcome this. We conclude chapter 2 showing how the theory can be extended to include the ∆(1232) resonance. In chapter 3 we describe the model-independent framework of pion photoproduction needed to describe both theory and experiment. We discuss the various recent efforts to describe pion photoproduction within χPT in the latter half of chapter 3. We lay out the framework we have developed in chapter 4 and present our results in chapter 5. We have compared our work to the recent experimental data released by the A2 and CB-TAPS collaborations at the Mainz Microtron. Our results show that we can accurately describe the data from threshold up to an in-coming laboratory photon energy of approximately 260 MeV, a clear improvement on previous studies. We find that including the ∆ is necessary to describe the data beyond E γ ≈ 200 MeV, but the case for D-waves is not so clear. We cannot pinpoint an energy where their inclusion is necessary but we do find evidence suggesting they are important to improve the stability of the fit. Our best results require the inclusion of both the ∆ and D-waves. Finally, in chapter 6, we present our concluding remarks from what has been achieved over the last four years of study and what forms possible extensions of our work could take.

A gauged SU(4) flavor symmetric hadronic Lagrangian with empirical hadron masses is constructed to study charmonium absorption and charmed hadron production in hadronic reactions. For the coupling constants, empirical values are used if available. Otherwise, they are determined from known coupling constants using the SU(4) relations. To take into account the finite sizes of hadrons, form factors are introduced at strong interaction vertices with empirical cutoff parameters. For J/ψabsorption by nucleons, we have included both two-and three-body final states and find that with a cutoff parameter of 1 GeV at interaction vertices involving charm hadrons, the cross section is at most 5 mb and is consistent with that extracted from J/ψproduction from both photo-and proton-nucleus reactions. We have also evaluated the cross sections for charmed hadron production from pion and rho meson interactions with nucleons. With the same cutoff parameter of 1 GeV at interaction vertices, we find that these cross sections have values of a few tenths of mb and are dominated bythe s-channel nucleon pole diagram. For charmed hadron production from proton-proton reactions, their cross sections including bothtwo-andthree-body final states are about 1 batcenter-of-mass energyof 11.5 GeV, which is comparable to the measured inclusive cross section in these reactions.Including photon as a U(1) gauge particle, we have extended the model to study charmed hadron production in photon-proton reactions with both two-and three-body final states included. For form factors, an overall one is introduced in each processin order to maintain the gauge invariance of the total amplitude. Fitting the cutoff parameter in the form factor to the measured total cross section for charmed hadron production in photon-proton reactions at a center-of-mass energy of 6 GeV, the ratio of the cross sections for two-body and three-body final states is consistent with available experimental data.This result is further compared with predictions from the leading-order perturbative QCD calculation. Knowledge of the cross sections for charmonium absorption byhadrons and for charmed hadron production in hadronic reactions is essential for understanding charm production in heavy ion collisions at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC), where a quark-gluon plasma is expected to be formed during the initial hot dense stage.

Photoproduction has been used at colliders for decades in order to study hadronic properties of matter. The energy and luminosity of recent and future colliders allow probing also the electroweak sector through photon-photon and photon-proton interactions. At the HERA electron-proton collider, studies of the W boson production provide a stringent test of the Standard Model. At the LHC, photoproduction has to be separated from the overwhelming background of partonic interactions. A powerful ‘tagging’ technique can be introduced by adding special detectors placed far from the interaction point to detect forward scattered protons, usually present in photon-mediated processes. The HECTOR software package was written in order to provide accurate simulation of forward protons trajectories in the LHC beam-lines. These tools have been used in order to study the photoproduction of top quarks via flavor-changing neutral currents. This process is practically absent in the Standard Model, while it appears in some of its extensions. Detection of such a process would thus be an evidence for the existence of physics beyond the Standard Model.