A study of E/iota region in the eta pi(0)pi(0) decay channel with GAMS-4000 spectrometer

A spin-parity analysis of the eta pi degrees pi degrees-system produced in the charge exchange pi(-)p-->eta pi degrees pi degrees n reaction is performed in a mass range up to 1.9 GeV. The data have been collected with the GAMS-4000 multiphoton spectrometer in 100 GeV/c secondary pi(-) beam of SPS at CERN. Clear peaks are observed in the mass spectra corresponding to the eta(1295) and iota/eta(1440) mesons in the pseudoscalar sector and to the D/f(1)(1285) and f(1) (1420) mesons in the axial-vector sector. Their masses and widths are in a good agreement with the world average values. Several decay branching ratios of these mesons are measured. The eta(1295) decay to eta pi degrees pi degrees is dominated by the a(0)(980)pi degrees subchannel. Contrary to this, the iota/eta(1440) --> a(0)(980)pi degrees decay is rather week, the eta(eta degrees eta degrees)(S) subchannel dominates in the iota to eta pi degrees pi degrees decay. This is an argument towards the iota assignment as an exotic meson with a strong valence gluon component.