The availability of polarized nuclear targets for nuclear reaction studies offers new research directions. In this paper we present the distorted wave impulse approximation formalism and calculations for two-nucleon pion absorption on polarized nuclear targets. We assume that the pion absorbs on a ${}_{}{}^3{}_{}{}^{}$${\mathit{S}}_1$ n-p pair and use phenomenological amplitudes to describe the πNN vertex. The effects of the distortions on the incoming pion and outgoing protons, in contrast to the elementary πNN vertex, are delineated for certain special cases in which the formalism simplifies. Predictions of cross sections and vector and tensor analyzing powers are made for polarized target nuclei ${}_{}{}^6{}_{}{}^{}\mathrm{Li}$, ${}_{}{}^7{}_{}{}^{}\mathrm{Li}$, ${}_{}{}^{13}{}_{}{}^{}\mathrm{C}$, and ${}_{}{}^{14}{}_{}{}^{}\mathrm{N}$ at pion incident energies of 115, 165, and 255 MeV.

• Received 21 July 1992

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevC.46.2415