The production of eta and omega mesons in 3.5 GeV p+p interaction in HADES

The study of meson production in proton-proton collisions in the energy range up to one GeV above the production threshold provides valuable information about the nature of the nucleon-nucleon interaction. Theoretical models describe the interaction between nucleons via the exchange of mesons. In such models, different mechanisms contribute to the production of the mesons in nucleon-nucleon collisions. The measurement of total and differential production cross sections provide information which can help in determining the magnitude of the various mechanisms. Moreover, such cross section information serves as an input to the transport calculations which describe e.g. the production of e+e- pairs in proton- and pion-induced reactions as well as in heavy ion collisions. In this thesis, the production of eta and omega mesons in proton-proton collisions at 3.5 GeV beam energy was studied using the High Acceptance DiElectron Spectrometer (HADES) installed at the Schwerionensynchrotron (SIS 18) at the Helmholtzzentrum für Schwerionenforschung in Darmstadt