On the Partial-Wave Analysis of Mesonic Resonances Decaying to Multiparticle Final States Produced by Polarized Photons

Abstract: Meson spectroscopy is going through a revival with the advent of high statistics experiments and new advances in the theoretical predictions. The Constituent Quark Model (CQM) is finally being expanded considering more basic principles of field theory and using discrete calculations of Quantum Chromodynamics (lattice QCD). These new calculations are approaching predictive power for the spectrum of hadronic resonances and decay modes. It will be the task of the new experiments to extract the meson spectrum from the data and compare with those predictions. The goal of this report is to describe one particular technique for extracting resonance information from multiparticle final states. The technique described here, partial wave analysis based on the helicity formalism, has been used at Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) using pion beams, and Jefferson Laboratory (JLab) using photon beams. In particular this report broadens this technique to include production experiments using linearly polarized real photons or quasi-real photons. This article is of a didactical nature. We describe the process of analysis, detailing assumptions and formalisms, and is directed towards people interested in starting partial wave analysis.