Helicity-Dependent Cross Sections for the Photoproduction of π 0 Pairs from Nucleons

The double-polarization observable E and helicity-dependent cross sections σ1/2, σ3/2 have been measured for the photoproduction of π0 pairs off quasifree protons and neutrons at the Mainz MAMI accelerator with the Crystal Ball/TAPS setup. A circularly polarized photon beam was produced by bremsstrahlung from longitudinally polarized electrons and impinged on a longitudinally polarized deuterated butanol target. The reaction products were detected with an almost 4π covering calorimeter. The results reveal for the first time the helicity- and isospin-dependent structure of the γN → Nπ0π0 reaction.They are compared to predictions from reaction models in view of nucleon resonance contributions and also to a refit of one model that predicted results for the proton and for the neutron target. As a result, the comparison of the prediction and the refit demonstrates the large impact of the new data.