Experimental evidence for the p Li-6 ---> eta Be-7 reaction at threshold

The p6Li to eta 7Be reaction has been investigated at Tp=683 MeV using the Saturne synchrotron. eta mesons were detected with the high-resolution light neutral meson spectrometer PINOT. The small-angle CM differential cross section for the production of the sum of the first few levels of 7Be was found to be 4.6+or-3.8 nb Sr-1. This value is about one order of magnitude less than that for the Pd to eta 3He reaction at the same eta CM momentum.