The pp → ppη reaction near the kinematical threshold

The pp → ppη reaction has been measured at six energies close to threshold, from 1258 MeV to 1352 MeV, using an internal cluster gas jet target in the CELSIUS storage ring. The η is detected through its decay photons, in an array of CsI detectors, and the forward-going protons are detected in a plastic scintillator spectrometer. A complete event reconstruction is obtained at the higher energies in the measured interval. The new data, together with earlier data, give an accurate determination of the energy dependence close to threshold. The influence of the η-proton FSI is seen in the total cross section data as well as in a Dalitz plot of the η-p invariant mass distributions.