π0π0 Production in proton-proton collisions at Tp=1.4 GeV The WASA-at-COSY Collaboration

The reaction pp -> pp pi(0)pi(0) has been investigated at a beam energy of 1.4 GeV using the WASA-at-COSY facility. The total cross section is found to be (324 +/- 21(systematic) +/- 58(normalization)) mu b. In order to study the production mechanism, differential kinematic distributions have been evaluated. The differential distributions indicate that both initial state protons are excited into intermediate Delta(1232) resonances, each decaying into a proton and a single pion, thereby producing the pion pair in the final state. No significant contribution of the Roper resonance N*(1440) via its decay into a proton and two pions is found. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.