First measurement of massive virtual photon emission from N* baryon resonances

First information on the time-like electromagnetic structure of baryons in the second resonance region has been obtained from measurements of dielectron (e+ e-) invariant-mass and angular distributions in the quasi-free reaction $π-$ p $\rightarrow$ n e+ e- at $\sqrt{s_{πp}}$ = 1.49 GeV with the High Acceptance Di-Electron Spectrometer (HADES) at GSI using the pion beam impinging on a CH$_2$ target. We find a total cross section $σ$ = 2.97 $\pm$ 0.07data $\pm$ 0.21acc $\pm$ 0.31Zeff $μ$b. In complement to the analysis of the inclusive e+ e- channel, this data set provides a crucial test of the description of baryon time-like transitions. Approaches based on a Vector Meson Dominance amplitude containing direct photon and vector meson ($ρ$) couplings to the baryon provide a satisfactory agreement with the data. A good description is also obtained by electromagnetic time-like baryon transition form factors in a covariant spectator-quark model, pointing to the dominance of meson-cloud effects. The dielectron angular distributions exhibit the contributions of virtual photons ($γ^*$) with longitudinal polarization, in contrast to real photons. The virtual photon angular dependence supports the dominance of J=3/2, I=1/2 contributions observed in both the $γ^*$n and the $ππ$n channels.