Exclusive meson production in p-nucleus collisions in the 1 GeV energy range

The exclusive production of π and η mesons in proton-nucleus reactions is studied in the framework of the impulse approximation in momentum space using relativistic nuclear wave functions. A comparison with the data on pion production for 800 MeV and 489 MeV protons on 12C and 16O shows the relativistic effects to be predominant. First computations on the reaction 12C(p,η)13N are presented within the same framework. The sensitivity of the calculated cross section to different values of the NNη coupling constant and the role of one-step and two-step processes is investigated.