Measurement of pion photoproduction at threshold on /sup 6/Li

We remeasured with improved techniques the positive-pion photoproduction yield on $^{6}\mathrm{Li}$ near threshold and up to 7.2 MeV above it. If the total cross section of the reaction $\ensuremath{\gamma}+p\ensuremath{\rightarrow}{\ensuremath{\pi}}^{+}+n$ is expressed as ${\ensuremath{\sigma}}_{p}=\frac{\mathrm{aq}}{k}$, our result for the reaction $\ensuremath{\gamma}+^{6}\mathrm{Li}\ensuremath{\rightarrow}{\ensuremath{\pi}}^{+}+^{6}\mathrm{He}_{\mathrm{g}.\mathrm{s}.}$ near threshold is ${\ensuremath{\sigma}}_{\mathrm{Li}}=(0.098\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}0.004)(\frac{\mathrm{aq}}{k}){\frac{(\frac{12.5}{q})}{[\mathrm{exp}(\frac{12.5}{q})\ensuremath{-}1]}},$ where $q$ is the pion and $k$ the photon c.m. momenta expressed in units of MeV/c. Deviations from this expression above threshold and the contribution of $\ensuremath{\gamma}+^{6}\mathrm{Li}\ensuremath{\rightarrow}{\ensuremath{\pi}}^{+}+^{6}\mathrm{He}$ (1.8 MeV) were also observed. The full understanding of this result requires further theoretical work and complementary experiments on the $A=6$ nuclear system.