Proposed Search for a₀⁰(980)-f₀(980) Mixing in Polarization Phenomena

The K+ and K0 meson mass difference induces the mixing of the a00(980) and f0(980) resonances, the amplitude of which, between the K+K- and K0K̅ 0 thresholds, is large in magnitude, of the order of  mK√mK02-mK+2≈√α mK2, and possesses the phase sharply varying by about 90°. We suggest performing the polarized target experiments on the reaction π-p→ηπ0n at high energy in which the fact of the existence of a00(980)-f0(980) mixing can be unambiguously and very easily established through the presence of a strong jump in the azimuthal asymmetry of the ηπ0 S wave production cross section near the KK̅ thresholds. The presented estimates of the polarization effect to be expected in experiment are to a great extent model independent.