Quasi-free cross section measurements of the π⁺π^- electroproduction off the bound proton in deuterium

During the last decades, experiments of meson electroproduction off a deuterium target have been inducing more and more scientific attention, as they offer a great opportunity to explore exclusive processes happening off bound nucleons and to study final state interactions as well as effects of the Fermi motion in detail.

In my presentation I am going to introduce the preliminary results of the cross section measurements for the reaction of charged double-pion electroproduction off the proton bound in the deuteron. The results are obtained through the analysis of the experimental data collected with the CLAS detector at an electron beam energy of 2.039 GeV. The measurements are performed in the second resonance region, where the double-pion production plays an important role. The cross sections are extracted in the quasi-free regime that implies the desire to focus on events that are not affected by final state interactions.

The talk will highlight some specific features that a deuteron target introduces into the data analysis, thus challenging both the selection of exclusive events and the calculation of the cross sections.