Spectroscopy of Λ hypernuclei has recently become one of the most valuable tools for the experimental investigation of strangeness nuclear physics. Several new approached are being pursued currently: In Mainz, the Microtron MAMI has been upgraded to 1.5GeV electron beam energy and will be used to produce strange hadronic systems in the near future. The KaoS spectrometer is being installed for l...

Coherent photoproduction of η mesons from the deuteron has been measured from threshold up to Eγ ≈ 750 MeV using the photon spectrometer TAPS at the tagged photon facility at the Mainz microtron MAMI. For the first time, differential coherent cross sections have been deduced from the coincident detection of the η meson and the recoil deuteron. A missing energy analysis was used for the suppress...

A Fermi accelerator is a billiard with oscillating walls. A leaky accelerator interacts with an environment of an ideal gas at equilibrium by exchange of particles through a small hole on its boundary. Such interaction may heat the gas: we estimate the net energy flow through the hole under the assumption that the particles inside the billiard do not collide with each other and remain in the ac...