Total cross sections for photoabsorption on light nuclei in the energy range 600–1500 MeV

Experimental data of the GRAAL Collaboration on the total cross sections for photoabsorption on deuterium and carbon targets at gamma-ray energies in the range between 600 and 1500 MeV are presented. The experiment was performed in a beam of photons obtained by the method of the Compton backscattering of laser photons at the electron storage ring of the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF, Grenoble, France) by using a wide-aperture detector covering a solid angle close to 4π. The total photoabsorption cross sections were determined by two independent methods: by subtracting the emptytarget background and by summing partial cross sections for meson photoproduction. The total cross sections for photoabsorption on quasifree protons and neutrons are shown to agree both in magnitude and in shape within a 5% precision of the measurements. In contrast to data previously available in the literature, both cross sections show distinctly the F15(1680) resonance at a photon energy of about 1 GeV. Data obtained in the present experiment for the cross sections for photoabsorption on a free and a bound nucleon are compared. This comparison reveals a substantial role of two-nucleon correlations in estimating the nuclear-medium effect on meson photoproduction.