It has recently been proven that the invariance of observables with respect to angle dependent phase rotations of reaction amplitudes mixes multipoles changing also their relative strength [1]. All contemporary partial wave analyses (PWA) in $\eta$ photoproduction on protons, either energy dependent (ED) [2-5] or single energy (SE) [6] do not take this effect into consideration. It is commonly accepted that there exist quite some similarity in the $E0+$ multipole for all PWA, but notable differences in this, but also in remaining partial waves still remain. In this paper we demonstrate that once this phase rotations are properly taken into account, all contemporary ED and SE partial wave analysis become almost identical for the dominant $E0+$ multipole, and the agreement among all other multipoles becomes much better. We also show that the the measured observables are almost equally well reproduced for all PWA, and the remaining differences among multipoles can be attributed solely to the difference of predictions for unmeasured observables. So, new measurements are needed.

Unconstrained partial-wave amplitudes obtained at discrete energies from fits to complete sets of experimental data may not vary smoothly with energy, and are in principle non-unique. We demonstrate how this behavior can be ascribed to the continuum ambiguity. Starting from the spinless scattering case, we demonstrate how an unknown overall phase depending on energy and angle mixes the structures seen in the associated partial-wave amplitudes making the partial wave decomposition non-unique, and illustrate it on a simple toy model. We then apply these principles to pseudo-scalar meson photoproduction and show that the non-uniqueness effect can be removed through a phase rotation, allowing a consistent comparison with model amplitudes. The effect of this phase ambiguity is also considered for Legendre expansions of experimental observables. 5 pages,

The pole structure of the current GW/SAID partial-wave analysis of elastic $\pi N$ scattering and $\eta N$ production data is studied. Pole positions and residues are extracted from both the energy-dependent and single-energy fits, using two different methods. For the energy-dependent fits, both contour integration and a Laurent+Pietarinen approach are used. In the case of single-energy fits, the Laurent+Pietarinen approach is used. Errors are estimated and the two sets of results are compared to other recent and older fits to data.

Weappliedanewapproachtodeterminethepolepositionsandresiduesfrompionphotoproductionmultipoles. The method is based on a Laurent expansion of the partial-wave T matrices, with a Pietarinen series representing the regular part of energy-dependent and single-energy photoproduction solutions. The method is applied to multipole fits generated by the MAID and George Washington University SAID (GWU-SAID) groups. We show that the number and properties of poles extracted from photoproduction data correspond very well to results from πN elastic data and values cited by the Particle Data Group (PDG). The photoproduction residues provide new information for the electromagnetic current at the pole position, which are independent of background parametrizations, which is not the case for the Breit-Wigner representation. Finally, we present the photodecay amplitudes from the current MAID and SAID solutions at the pole for all four-star nucleon resonances below W = 2 GeV.

Each and every energy-dependent partial-wave analysis is parametrizing the pole positions in a procedure defined by the way the continuous energy dependence is implemented. These pole positions are, henceforth, inherently model dependent. To reduce this model dependence, we use only one, coupled-channel, unitary, fully analytic method based on the isobar approximation to extract the pole positions from each available member of the worldwide collection of partial-wave amplitudes, which are understood as nothing more but a good energy-dependent representation of genuine experimental numbers assembled in a form of partial-wave data. In that way, the model dependence related to the different assumptions on the analytic form of the partial-wave amplitudes is avoided, and the true confidence limit for the existence of a particular resonant state, at least in one model, is established. The way the method works and first results are demonstrated for the ${S}_{11}$ partial wave.