| We report the measurement of "axial" spin observables in the dp breakup reaction at 270MeV. These measurements were made using a stored polarized "cooled" deuteron beam and a polarized internal hydrogen target at the Indiana University Cyclotron Facility (IUCF). Given our beam and target spin-alignment directions we were able to measure the axial spin observables Apz , Cy,x - Cx,y, and Czz,z. Axial spin observables are the subset of observables which are antisymmetric under the parity operation and are thus forbidden in reactions where the outgoing momenta are coplanar with the beam momentum. It has been argued that axial observables may be more sensitive to a three-body force than other spin observables. We compare our measurements to theoretical predictions based on the CD-Bonn nucleon-nucleon potential and the TM ' three-nucleon force, using a new method to correctly take into account the experimental constraints. The only previous measurement of Apz for pd breakup was carried out at 9MeV and yielded a result consistent with zero. In contrast, at Tp = 135 MeV, the present experiment reports a sizeable value for Apz , Cy,x - Cx,y, and Czz,z. To our knowledge, this is the first time axial correlation coefficients have been measured in a nuclear reaction. The expected sensitivity of axial observables to the three-nucleon force is not confirmed by our measurement. |
