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# GAMMA RAYS FROM CLUSTERS OF GALAXIES

## 1 Introduction

Clusters of galaxies are powerful X-ray sources, with luminosities in the range $`10^{43}10^{46}ergs^1`$. This thermal radiation is emitted by an hot ($`10^8K`$), tenuous ($`10^3cm^3`$), highly ionized intra cluster gas that fills all the cluster volume and accounts for a dominant fraction of the cluster baryons . Compelling evidence for the presence of relativistic particles and magnetic field in the intra cluster medium (hereafter ICM) is given by the observation of a diffuse synchrotron radio emission in a consistent fraction of the rich clusters . This gives us a direct proof of the presence of GeV electrons and $`\mu G`$ magnetic field. The same electrons responsible for the radio emission can upscatter the cosmic microwave background (CMB) photons in the X-ray band via inverse Compton scattering (ICS) providing an explanation for the hard X-ray excess observed in a few clusters . Different mechanisms, such as non thermal Bremsstrahlung from a population of supra thermal electrons, have also been proposed .

Clusters are also expected to be potential gamma ray sources, the main emission processes being inverse Compton scattering off the cosmic microwave background photons (CMB) from ultra relativistic electrons and the decay of neutral pions produced in the interactions between cosmic ray protons and ICM protons . In this paper we make predictions on the number of clusters that future gamma ray telescopes (both from space and earth) will be able to detect and on the contribution of clusters to the extragalactic diffuse gamma ray background. We focus our attention on the photons produced by electrons accelerated at shocks that develop during the process of large scale structure formation. Protons are also accelerated at shocks, they cannot escape the cluster volume  and they are re-energized each time a new merger event occurs . It follows that the spectrum and the energy density of protons depend on the merger history of the cluster and an hadronic feature might appear on top of the gamma ray emission generated by inverse Compton scattering of electrons.

## 2 Shock acceleration during structure formation

The ICM is heated to the observed high temperature by shock waves that naturally form during the process of large scale structure formation . Diffusive acceleration can take place at these shocks so that a small fraction of the particles crossing the shock discontinuity can be energized up to relativistic energies. The maximum energy for the accelerated particles can be evaluated equating the acceleration time with the energy loss time. Under the reasonable assumption that during the acceleration process the residence time of the particle in the upstream region is longer than the residence time downstream, and neglecting a weak dependence on the shock Mach number we can approximate the acceleration time as :

$$\tau _{acc}(E)\frac{4D(E)}{u^2}$$
(1)
where $`D`$ and $`u`$ are the upstream diffusion coefficient and the upstream fluid velocity. Under these hypothesis the acceleration time depends only on upstream quantities, unaffected by the presence of the shock. Assuming a Bohm diffusion coefficient we obtain:

$$\tau _{acc}(E)0.3B(\mu G)^1E(GeV)(\frac{u}{10^8cms^1})years.$$
(2)
For electrons the relevant loss channel is ICS on the CMB radiation characterized by a time scale:

$$\tau _{ICS}=\frac{E}{\frac{4}{3}\sigma _TcU_{CMB}\gamma ^2}10^9E(GeV)^1(1+z)^4years$$
(3)
where $`U_{CMB}`$ is the CMB energy density and $`\gamma `$ is the electron Lorentz factor. Equating 2 and 3 we obtain the maximum energy for the electrons:

$$E_{max}57B(\mu G)^{1/2}(\frac{u}{10^8cms^1})TeV$$
(4)
corresponding to a maximum energy for the upscattered CMB photons equal to:

$$E_\gamma ^{max}=\frac{4}{3}\gamma ^2ϵ_{CMB}7.5B(\mu G)(\frac{u}{10^8cms^1})^2TeV$$
(5)
which falls in the very high energy gamma ray band. It is important to stress, however, that the Bohm diffusion coefficient is the smallest possible one, and that a different choice of the diffusion coefficient could result in a too low maximum energy of the electrons, so that the electron population would be unable to upscatter the CMB photons up to gamma ray energies. In the following we use for the maximum energy the value obtained in eq. 5.

The spectra of particles accelerated at shocks are power laws in momentum of the form $`N(p)p^\alpha `$, where the slope $`\alpha `$ is connected to the shock Mach number $``$ through the well known relation:

$$\alpha =2\frac{^2+1}{^21}.$$
(6)
## 3 Large scale structure formation and associated shocks.

According to the standard theory of large scale structure formation clusters form hierarchically through mergers of smaller subunits. Semi-analytical models describing this process can be found in the literature . This formalism provides us the comoving density of objects with given mass $`M`$ at a redshift $`z`$, $`n(M,z)`$, and the rate at which clusters of mass $`M_1`$ and $`M_2`$ merge together at a fixed redshift $`z`$, $`R(M_1,M_2,z)`$. Sampling these distributions it is possible to simulate the whole merger history of a cluster with a certain present mass. Each time a merger occurs we can estimate the relative velocity $`v_r`$ between the two involved clusters using energy conservation :

$$\frac{GM_1M_2}{R_1+R_2}+\frac{1}{2}M_rv_r^2=\frac{GM_1M_2}{2R_{ta}}$$
(7)
where $`M_i`$ and $`R_i`$ are the masses and virial radii of the two colliding clusters, $`M_r`$ is the reduced mass and $`R_{ta}`$ is the turnaround radius of the system. The shock Mach number is the ratio between $`v_r`$ and the sound speed in the ICM, given by the virial theorem:

$$c_{s,i}^2=\gamma (\gamma 1)\frac{GM_i}{2R_i}.$$
(8)
In figure 1 (left panel) the Mach numbers $``$ of the shocks are plotted as a function of the ratio between the masses of the two merging clusters. This result has been obtained simulating 500 different realizations of a merger tree for a cluster with present mass $`10^{15}`$ solar masses . In the right panel the cumulative distribution of Mach numbers is shown.

Fig. 1 tells us that merger shocks are often weak, following a distribution strongly peaked at $`1.4`$ and consequently are unable to accelerate relativistic particles in an efficient way (accelerated spectra are very steep power law with $`\alpha 6`$). Only $`6\%`$ of the shocks have Mach number greater than 3 (corresponding to $`\alpha >2.4`$), necessary to be consistent with the spectral shape of cluster radio halos, and these strong shocks form only during minor mergers (collisions between clusters with very different masses). On the contrary radio halos are found in a consistent fraction ($`40\%`$) of massive clusters and there seems to be a correlation between the presence of the halo and the signature of a recent major merger . We can conclude that radio halos are unlikely to be produced by electrons directly accelerated at merger shocks .

Besides merger shocks, that develop in the ICM of virialized objects, we consider here also accretion shocks that form due to the secondary infall of non virialized matter onto an already formed cluster . These shocks propagate in a cold medium and are strong by definition, so that the spectra of the accelerated particles are fixed to $`N(p)p^2`$. We assume here that a spherical shock forms at the virial radius of each cluster and that the cold infalling matter (whose density is taken here equal to the average baryon density of the universe) flows at the free fall velocity.

## 4 Source counts and the contribution to the gamma ray background

Recently an association between clusters of galaxies and unidentified EGRET sources was proposed by different authors . The physical plausibility and the statistical significance of such an association were strongly questioned in , and the lack of association was also found in . Future gamma ray space telescopes, such as AGILE and GLAST, will observe the whole sky with a better sensitivity compared to EGRET. We make here predictions on the number of objects that these telescopes will be able to detect.

The number of accreting clusters with gamma ray flux greater than a fixed value $`F_{lim}`$ can be evaluated as follows:

$$N(>F_{lim})=_0^{\mathrm{}}𝑑z\frac{dV}{dz}_{M(F_{lim},z)}^{\mathrm{}}𝑑Mn(M,z)$$
(9)
where $`dV`$ is the comoving volume between $`z`$ and $`z+dz`$, $`n(M,z)`$ is given in , and $`M(F_{lim},z)`$ is the mass of a cluster accreting at redshift $`z`$ whose flux is $`F_{lim}`$. For merging clusters a similar, slightly more complicated expression, which includes also the merger rate $`R(M_1,M_2,z)`$, holds. Gamma ray luminosities are evaluated assuming that a small fraction $`\eta 5\%`$ of the kinetic energy flowing across the shock is converted in relativistic electrons, which upscatter the CMB photons in the gamma ray energy band.

The results, as obtained in , are shown in fig 2 (left panel) and can be summarized in this way: AGILE and GLAST will be able to observe $`10`$ and a few tens of clusters respectively (both merging and accreting), while no one of the unidentified EGRET sources is expected to be associated with a cluster, in agreement with .

The superposition of gamma ray emission from single clusters results in a diffuse background. In  was firt proposed that the CMB photons, scattered up to gamma ray energies by relativistic electrons accelerated at the shocks that form during large scale structure formation, could account for the whole extragalactic diffuse gamma ray background, as estimated subtracting a galactic emission model to the EGET data . We evaluate in  this contribution using the formalism described in the previous sections. Our results are shown in fig. 2 (right panel). The shaded region corresponds to the EGRET data and the solid line that roughly fits the data is the prediction made in . Our estimates of the contribution to the background from accreting and merging clusters are represented by the dotted and dashed lines respectively. The dot-dashed line represents a more realistic estimate for the diffuse emission due to merging clusters, obtained considering only objects with mass greater than $`10^{13}M_{}`$ (the typical mass of a group of galaxies). According to our estimate, forming structures in the universe can account only for $`10\%`$ of the extragalactic background and this is in agreement with recent results from detailed numerical simulations .

## 5 Very high energy gamma ray emission

The maximum energy of the upscattered CMB photons falls in the TeV range (see eq.5) so that we can wonder if clusters could be detected by ground based Cherenkov telescopes. In fig. 3 we plot the sensitivities for a generic telescope as calculated in  for 100 hours of observation with an array consisting of 10 cells (pointlike and $`1^{}`$ sources) together with the expected spectra for three different cases (top to bottom): 1) a merger between two clusters with masses $`10^{15}`$ and $`10^{13}M_{}`$, 2) a $`10^{15}M_{}`$ accreting cluster with a magnetic field in the upstream region equal to $`0.1\mu G`$, 3) the same as 2) but with a ten times lower magnetic field. All the considered clusters are at a distance of $`100Mpc`$. The thin continuous and dotted lines refer to the spectra calculated with and without taking into account the absorption on the infrared background .

The apparent size of a $`10^{15}M_{}`$ accreting cluster at a distance of $`100Mpc`$ is comparable or even greater than the field of view of Cherenkov telescopes ($``$ a few degrees), while the size of the emitting region for the merger considered in fig. 3 should be roughly $`1^{}`$, making it marginally detectable.

## 6 Conclusions

In  we first proposed that merger shocks are often weak and consequently unable to accelerate efficiently relativistic particles. We developed a recipe to evaluate the shock Mach numbers as a function of the masses of the two merging objects finding that shock acceleration can be effective only during minor mergers. We extended our analysis in  where we included also the effects of strong accretion shocks.

Ultrarelativistic electrons can be accelerated at such strong shocks and they can upscatter the CMB photons to very high gamma ray energies, making clusters of galaxies potential GeV and TeV gamma ray sources. We estimate that the future gamma ray telescopes AGILE and GLAST will observe $`10`$ and $`50`$ clusters respectively , while we do not expect any association between clusters and unidentified EGRET sources, in agreement with the observational results presented in . We also estimated the contribution from large scale structure formation to the EDGRB to be at most equal to $`10\%`$ of the observed one.

Only massive, nearby merging clusters could be detected by future Cherenkov arrays, while the detection of accreting clusters seems to be more problematic due to the very extended apparent size of these sources.

## 7 Acknowledgments

I am grateful to G. Brunetti for useful comments.


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# Measurement of the Cross-Section for the Process 𝛾𝛾→pp̄ at √𝑠ₑₑ=183-189GeV with the OPAL Detector at LEP

## 1 INTRODUCTION

The exclusive production of proton-antiproton ($`\mathrm{p}\overline{\mathrm{p}}`$) pairs in the collision of two quasi-real photons can be used to test predictions of QCD. At LEP the photons are emitted by the beam electrons111In this paper positrons are also referred to as electrons. and the $`\mathrm{p}\overline{\mathrm{p}}`$ pairs are produced in the process $`\mathrm{e}^+\mathrm{e}^{}\mathrm{e}^+\mathrm{e}^{}\gamma \gamma \mathrm{e}^+\mathrm{e}^{}\mathrm{p}\overline{\mathrm{p}}`$.

The application of QCD to exclusive photon-photon reactions is based on the work of Brodsky and Lepage . Calculations based on this ansatz  use a specific model of the proton’s three-quark wave function by Chernyak and Zhitnitsky . This calculation yields cross-sections about one order of magnitude smaller than the existing experimental results , for $`\mathrm{p}\overline{\mathrm{p}}`$ centre-of-mass energies $`W`$ greater than $`2.5\mathrm{GeV}`$.

To model non-perturbative effects, the introduction of quark-diquark systems has been proposed .

Recent studies  have extended the systematic investigation of hard exclusive reactions within the quark-diquark model to photon-photon processes .

The calculations of the integrated cross-section for the process $`\gamma \gamma \mathrm{p}\overline{\mathrm{p}}`$ in the angular range $`|\mathrm{cos}\theta ^{}|<0.6`$ (where $`\theta ^{}`$ is the angle between the proton’s momentum and the electron beam direction in the $`\mathrm{p}\overline{\mathrm{p}}`$ centre-of-mass system) and for $`W>2.5\mathrm{GeV}`$ are in good agreement with experimental results , whereas the pure quark model predicts much smaller cross-sections .

In this paper, we present a measurement of the cross-section  for the exclusive process $`\mathrm{e}^+\mathrm{e}^{}\mathrm{e}^+\mathrm{e}^{}\mathrm{p}\overline{\mathrm{p}}`$ in the range $`2.15<W<3.95\mathrm{GeV}`$, using data taken with the OPAL detector  at $`\sqrt{s_{\mathrm{ee}}}=183\mathrm{GeV}`$ and $`189\mathrm{GeV}`$ at LEP. The integrated luminosities for the two energies are $`62.8\mathrm{pb}^1`$ and $`186.2\mathrm{pb}^1`$.

## 2 EVENT SELECTION

The $`\mathrm{e}^+\mathrm{e}^{}\mathrm{e}^+\mathrm{e}^{}\mathrm{p}\overline{\mathrm{p}}`$ events are selected by the following set of cuts:

1. The sum of the energies measured in the barrel and endcap sections of the electromagnetic calorimeter must be less than half the beam energy.
2. Exactly two oppositely charged tracks are required with each track having at least 20 hits in the central jet chamber to ensure a reliable determination of the specific energy loss $`\mathrm{d}E/\mathrm{d}x`$. The point of closest approach to the interaction point must be less than 1 cm in the $`r\varphi `$ plane and less than 50 cm in the $`z`$ direction.
3. For each track the polar angle must be in the range $`|\mathrm{cos}\theta |<0.75`$ and the transverse momentum $`p_{}`$ must be larger than $`0.4\mathrm{GeV}`$. These cuts ensure a high trigger efficiency and good particle identification.
4. The invariant mass $`W`$ of the $`\mathrm{p}\overline{\mathrm{p}}`$ final state must be in the range $`2.15<W<3.95\mathrm{GeV}`$. The invariant mass is determined from the measured momenta of the two tracks using the proton mass.
5. The events are boosted into the rest system of the measured $`\mathrm{p}\overline{\mathrm{p}}`$ final state. The scattering angle of the tracks in this system has to satisfy $`|\mathrm{cos}\theta ^{}|<0.6`$.
6. All events must fulfil the trigger conditions described in .
7. The large background from other exclusive processes, mainly the production of e+e-, $`\mu ^+\mu ^{}`$, and $`\pi ^+\pi ^{}`$ pairs, is reduced by particle identification using the specific energy loss $`\mathrm{d}E/\mathrm{d}x`$ in the jet chamber and the energy in the electromagnetic calorimeter. The $`\mathrm{d}E/\mathrm{d}x`$ probabilities of the tracks must be consistent with the p and $`\overline{\text{p}}`$ hypothesis.

* Events where the ratio $`E/p`$ for each track lies in the range $`0.4<E/p<1.8`$ are regarded as possible $`\mathrm{e}^+\mathrm{e}^{}\mathrm{e}^+\mathrm{e}^{}\mathrm{e}^+\mathrm{e}^{}`$ candidates, $`E`$ here is the energy of the ECAL cluster associated with the track with momentum $`p`$. These events are rejected if the $`\mathrm{d}E/\mathrm{d}x`$ probabilities of the two tracks are consistent with the electron hypothesis.
    * Events where the ratio $`E/p`$ for each track is less than $`0.8`$, as expected for a minimum ionizing particle, are regarded as possible background from $`\mathrm{e}^+\mathrm{e}^{}\mathrm{e}^+\mathrm{e}^{}\mu ^+\mu ^{}`$ events. This background is reduced by rejecting events where the $`\mathrm{d}E/\mathrm{d}x`$ probability for both tracks is consistent with the muon hypothesis. This cut is also effective in reducing the $`\pi ^+\pi ^{}`$ background.
    * The $`\mathrm{d}E/\mathrm{d}x`$ probability for the proton hypothesis has to be greater than $`0.1\%`$ for each track and it has to be larger than the probabilities for the pion and kaon hypotheses. The product of the $`\mathrm{d}E/\mathrm{d}x`$ probabilities for both tracks to be (anti) protons has to be larger than the product of the $`\mathrm{d}E/\mathrm{d}x`$ probabilities for both tracks to be electrons.
8. Cosmic ray background is eliminated by applying a muon veto .
9. Exclusive two-particle final states are selected by requiring the transverse component of the momentum sum squared of the two tracks, $`|\stackrel{}{p}_{}|^2`$, to be smaller than $`0.04\mathrm{GeV}^2`$. By restricting the maximum value of $`Q_i^2`$, this cut also ensures that the interacting photons are quasi-real. Therefore no further cut rejecting events with scattered electrons in the detector needs to be applied.

After all cuts $`163`$ data events are selected, 35 events at $`\sqrt{s_{\mathrm{ee}}}=183`$ $`\mathrm{GeV}`$ and $`128`$ events at $`\sqrt{s_{\mathrm{ee}}}=189`$ $`\mathrm{GeV}`$. Background from events containing particles other than (anti-)protons is negligible due to the good rejection power of the $`\mathrm{d}E/\mathrm{d}x`$ cuts. No event remains after applying the event selection to the background Monte Carlo samples . Since the $`\mathrm{p}\overline{\mathrm{p}}`$ final state is fully reconstructed, the experimental resolution for $`W`$ (determined with Monte Carlo simulation) is better than $`1\%`$. The experimental resolution for $`|\mathrm{cos}\theta ^{}|`$ is about $`0.014`$.

## 3 CROSS-SECTION MEASUREMENTS

The differential cross-section for the process $`\mathrm{e}^+\mathrm{e}^{}\mathrm{e}^+\mathrm{e}^{}\mathrm{p}\overline{\mathrm{p}}`$ is given by

$`{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{d}^2\sigma (\mathrm{e}^+\mathrm{e}^{}\mathrm{e}^+\mathrm{e}^{}\mathrm{p}\overline{\mathrm{p}})}{\mathrm{d}W\mathrm{d}|\mathrm{cos}\theta ^{}|}}=`$
$`{\displaystyle \frac{N_{\mathrm{ev}}(W,|\mathrm{cos}\theta ^{}|)}{_{\mathrm{e}^+\mathrm{e}^{}}\epsilon _{\mathrm{TRIG}}\epsilon _{\mathrm{DET}}(W,|\mathrm{cos}\theta ^{}|)\mathrm{\Delta }W\mathrm{\Delta }|\mathrm{cos}\theta ^{}|}}`$ (1)
where $`N_{\mathrm{ev}}`$ is the number of events selected in each $`(W,|\mathrm{cos}\theta ^{}|)`$ bin, $`\epsilon _{\mathrm{TRIG}}`$ is the trigger efficiency, $`\epsilon _{\mathrm{DET}}`$ is the detection efficiency, $`_{\mathrm{e}^+\mathrm{e}^{}}`$ is the measured integrated luminosity, and $`\mathrm{\Delta }W`$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }|\mathrm{cos}\theta ^{}|`$ are the bin widths in $`W`$ and in $`|\mathrm{cos}\theta ^{}|`$.

The total cross-section $`\sigma (\gamma \gamma \mathrm{p}\overline{\mathrm{p}})`$ for a given value of $`\sqrt{s_{\mathrm{ee}}}`$ is obtained from the differential cross-section $`\mathrm{d}\sigma (\mathrm{e}^+\mathrm{e}^{}\mathrm{e}^+\mathrm{e}^{}\mathrm{p}\overline{\mathrm{p}})/\mathrm{d}W`$ using the luminosity function $`\mathrm{d}_{\gamma \gamma }/\mathrm{d}W`$ :

$$\sigma (\gamma \gamma \mathrm{p}\overline{\mathrm{p}})=\frac{\mathrm{d}\sigma (\mathrm{e}^+\mathrm{e}^{}\mathrm{e}^+\mathrm{e}^{}\mathrm{p}\overline{\mathrm{p}})}{\mathrm{d}W}/\frac{\mathrm{d}_{\gamma \gamma }}{\mathrm{d}W}.$$
(2)
The luminosity function $`\mathrm{d}_{\gamma \gamma }/\mathrm{d}W`$ is calculated by the Galuga program . The resulting differential cross-sections for the process $`\gamma \gamma \mathrm{p}\overline{\mathrm{p}}`$ in bins of $`W`$ and $`|\mathrm{cos}\theta ^{}|`$ are then summed over $`|\mathrm{cos}\theta ^{}|`$ to obtain the total cross-section as a function of $`W`$ for $`|\mathrm{cos}\theta ^{}|<0.6`$.

## 4 RESULT AND DISCUSSION

The measured cross-sections  as a function of $`W`$ are showed in Fig. 1.

The average $`W`$ in each bin has been determined by applying the procedure described in . The measured cross-sections $`\sigma (\gamma \gamma \mathrm{p}\overline{\mathrm{p}})`$ for $`2.15<W<3.95\mathrm{GeV}`$ and for $`|\mathrm{cos}\theta ^{}|<0.6`$ are compared with the results obtained by ARGUS , CLEO  and VENUS  in Fig. 1a and to the results obtained by TASSO , JADE  and TPC/$`2\gamma `$  in Fig. 1b. The quark-diquark model predictions  are also shown. Reasonable agreement is found between this measurement and the results obtained by other experiments for $`W>2.3\mathrm{GeV}`$. At lower $`W`$ our measurements agree with the measurements by JADE  and ARGUS , but lie below the results obtained by CLEO , and VENUS . The cross-section measurements reported here extend towards higher values of $`W`$ than previous results. Fig. 1c shows the measured $`\gamma \gamma \mathrm{p}\overline{\mathrm{p}}`$ cross-section as a function of $`W`$ together with some predictions based on the quark-diquark model . There is good agreement between our results and the older quark-diquark model predictions . The most recent calculations  lie above the data, but within the estimated theoretical uncertainties the predictions are in agreement with the measurement.

An important consequence of the pure quark hard scattering picture is the power law which follows from the dimensional counting rules . The dimensional counting rules state that an exclusive cross-section at fixed angle has an energy dependence connected with the number of hadronic constituents participating in the process under investigation. We expect that for asymptotically large $`W`$ and fixed $`|\mathrm{cos}\theta ^{}|`$

$$\frac{\mathrm{d}\sigma (\gamma \gamma \mathrm{p}\overline{\mathrm{p}})}{\mathrm{d}t}W^{2(2n)}$$
(3)
where $`n=8`$ is the number of elementary fields and $`t=W^2/2(1|\mathrm{cos}\theta ^{}|)`$. The introduction of diquarks modifies the power law by decreasing $`n`$ to $`n=6`$. This power law is compared to the data in Fig. 1c with $`\sigma (\gamma \gamma \mathrm{p}\overline{\mathrm{p}})W^{2(n3)}`$ using three values of the exponent $`n`$: fixed values $`n=8`$, $`n=6`$, and the fitted value $`n=7.5\pm 0.8`$ obtained by taking into account statistical uncertainties only. More data covering a wider range of $`W`$ would be required to determine the exponent $`n`$ more precisely.

The measured differential cross-sections $`\mathrm{d}\sigma (\gamma \gamma \mathrm{p}\overline{\mathrm{p}})/\mathrm{d}|\mathrm{cos}\theta ^{}|`$ in different $`W`$ ranges and for $`|\mathrm{cos}\theta ^{}|<0.6`$ are showed in Fig. 2. The differential cross-section in the range $`2.15<W<2.55\mathrm{GeV}`$ lies below the results reported by VENUS  and CLEO  (Fig. 2a). Since the CLEO measurements are given for the lower $`W`$ range $`2.0<W<2.5\mathrm{GeV}`$, we rescale their results by a factor 0.635 which is the ratio of the two CLEO total cross-section measurements integrated over the $`W`$ ranges $`2.0<W<2.5\mathrm{GeV}`$ and $`2.15<W<2.55\mathrm{GeV}`$. This leads to a better agreement between the two measurements but the OPAL results are still consistently lower. The shapes of the $`|\mathrm{cos}\theta ^{}|`$ dependence of all measurements are consistent apart from the highest $`|\mathrm{cos}\theta ^{}|`$ bin, where the OPAL measurement is significantly lower than the measurements of the other two experiments.

In Fig. 2b-c the differential cross-sections $`\mathrm{d}\sigma (\gamma \gamma \mathrm{p}\overline{\mathrm{p}})/\mathrm{d}|\mathrm{cos}\theta ^{}|`$ in the $`W`$ ranges $`2.35<W<2.85\mathrm{GeV}`$ and $`2.55<W<2.95\mathrm{GeV}`$ are compared to the measurements by TASSO, VENUS and CLEO in similar $`W`$ ranges. The measurements are consistent within the uncertainties. The comparison of the differential cross-section as a function of $`|\mathrm{cos}\theta ^{}|`$ for $`2.55<W<2.95\mathrm{GeV}`$ with the calculation of  at $`W=2.8\mathrm{GeV}`$ for different distribution amplitudes (DA) is shown in Fig. 3a. The shapes of the curves of the pure quark model  and the quark-diquark model predictions  are consistent with those of the data.

In Fig. 3b the differential cross-section $`\mathrm{d}\sigma (\gamma \gamma \mathrm{p}\overline{\mathrm{p}})/\mathrm{d}|\mathrm{cos}\theta ^{}|`$ is shown versus $`|\mathrm{cos}\theta ^{}|`$ for $`2.15<W<2.55\mathrm{GeV}`$. The cross-section decreases at large $`|\mathrm{cos}\theta ^{}|`$; the shape of the angular distribution is different from that at higher $`W`$ values. This indicates that for low $`W`$ the perturbative calculations of  are not valid.

Another important consequence of the hard scattering picture is the hadron helicity conservation rule. For each exclusive reaction like $`\gamma \gamma \mathrm{p}\overline{\mathrm{p}}`$ the sum of the two initial helicities equals the sum of the two final ones . According to the simplification used in , only scalar diquarks are considered, and the (anti) proton carries the helicity of the single (anti) quark. Neglecting quark masses, quark and antiquark and hence proton and antiproton have to be in opposite helicity states. If the (anti) proton is considered as a point-like particle, simple QED rules determine the angular dependence of the unpolarized $`\gamma \gamma \mathrm{p}\overline{\mathrm{p}}`$ differential cross-section :

$$\frac{\mathrm{d}\sigma (\gamma \gamma \mathrm{p}\overline{\mathrm{p}})}{\mathrm{d}|\mathrm{cos}\theta ^{}|}\frac{(1+\mathrm{cos}^2\theta ^{})}{(1\mathrm{cos}^2\theta ^{})}.$$
(4)
This expression is compared to the data in two $`W`$ ranges, $`2.55<W<2.95\mathrm{GeV}`$ (Fig. 3a) and $`2.15<W<2.55\mathrm{GeV}`$ (Fig. 3b). The normalisation in each case is determined by the best fit to the data. In the higher $`W`$ range, the prediction (4) is in agreement with the data within the experimental uncertainties. In the lower $`W`$ range this simple model does not describe the data. At low $`W`$ soft processes such as meson exchange are expected to introduce other partial waves, so that the approximations leading to (4) become invalid .

## 5 CONCLUSIONS

The cross-section for the process $`\mathrm{e}^+\mathrm{e}^{}\mathrm{e}^+\mathrm{e}^{}\mathrm{p}\overline{\mathrm{p}}`$ has been measured in the $`\mathrm{p}\overline{\mathrm{p}}`$ centre-of-mass energy range of $`2.15<W<3.95\mathrm{GeV}`$ using data taken with the OPAL detector at $`\sqrt{s_{\mathrm{ee}}}=183`$ and $`189\mathrm{GeV}`$. The measurement extends to slightly larger values of $`W`$ than in previous measurements.

The total cross-section $`\sigma (\gamma \gamma \mathrm{p}\overline{\mathrm{p}})`$ as a function of $`W`$ is obtained from the differential cross-section $`\mathrm{d}\sigma (\mathrm{e}^+\mathrm{e}^{}\mathrm{e}^+\mathrm{e}^{}\mathrm{p}\overline{\mathrm{p}})/\mathrm{d}W`$ using a luminosity function. For the high $`\mathrm{p}\overline{\mathrm{p}}`$ centre-of-mass energies, $`W>2.3\mathrm{GeV}`$, the measured cross-section is in good agreement with other experimental results . At lower $`W`$ the OPAL measurements lie below the results obtained by CLEO , and VENUS , but agree with the JADE  and ARGUS  measurements. The cross-section as a function of $`W`$ is in agreement with the quark-diquark model predictions of .

The power law fit yields an exponent $`n=7.5\pm 0.8`$ where the uncertainty is statistical only. Within this uncertainty, the measurement is not able to distinguish between predictions for the proton to interact as a state of three quasi-free quarks or as a quark-diquark system. These predictions are based on dimensional counting rules .

The shape of the differential cross-section $`\mathrm{d}\sigma (\gamma \gamma \mathrm{p}\overline{\mathrm{p}})/\mathrm{d}|\mathrm{cos}\theta ^{}|`$ agrees with the results of previous experiments in comparable $`W`$ ranges, apart from the highest $`|\mathrm{cos}\theta ^{}|`$ bin measured in the range $`2.15<W<2.55\mathrm{GeV}`$. In this low $`W`$ region contributions from soft processes such as meson exchange are expected to complicate the picture by introducing extra partial waves, and the shape of the measured differential cross-section $`\mathrm{d}\sigma (\gamma \gamma \mathrm{p}\overline{\mathrm{p}})/\mathrm{d}|\mathrm{cos}\theta ^{}|`$ does not agree with the simple model that leads to the helicity conservation rule. In the high $`W`$ region, $`2.55<W<2.95\mathrm{GeV}`$, the experimental and theoretical differential cross-sections $`\mathrm{d}\sigma (\gamma \gamma \mathrm{p}\overline{\mathrm{p}})/\mathrm{d}|\mathrm{cos}\theta ^{}|`$ agree, indicating that the data are consistent with the helicity conservation rule.