Elastic and proton-dissociative photoproduction of $\rho^0$, $\phi$ and $J/\psi$ vector mesons ($\gamma p\to Vp$, $\gamma p\to VN$, respectively) have been measured in e^+p interactions at HERA up to -t=3 GeV$^2$, where t is the four-momentum transfer squared at the photon-vector meson vertex. The analysis is based on a data sample in which photoproduction reactions were tagged by detection of the scattered positron in a special-purpose calorimeter. This limits the photon virtuality, Q^2, to values less than 0.01 GeV$^2$, and selects a $\gamma p$ average center-of-mass energy of <W> = 94 GeV. Results for the differential cross sections, d$\sigma$/d$t$, for $\rho^0$, $\phi$ and $J/\psi$ mesons are presented and compared to the results of recent QCD calculations. Results are also presented for the t-dependence of the pion-pair invariant-mass distribution in the $\rho^0$ mass region and of the spin-density matrix elements determined from the decay-angle distributions. The Pomeron trajectory has been derived from measurements of the W dependence of the elastic differential cross sections d$\sigma$/d$t$ for both $\rho^0$ and $\phi$ mesons.
Differential cross section for proton-dissociative RHO0 photoproduction.
Differential cross section for elastic RHO0 photoproduction.
The ratio of the elastic to proton-dissociative cross sections for RHO0 photoproduction.
We present results on vector-meson photoproduction via γp→Vp in the LBL-SLAC 82-in. hydrogen bubble chamber exposed to a linearly polarized photon beam at 2.8, 4.7, and 9.3 GeV. We find ρ0 production to have the characteristics of a diffractive process, i.e., a cross section decreasing slowly with energy and a differential cross section with slope of ∼ 6.5 GeV−2. Within errors the ρ0 production amplitudes are entirely due to natural-parity exchange. s-channel helicity is conserved to a high degree in the γ→ρ0 transition. We find evidence for small helicity-flip amplitudes for ππ pairs in the ρ0 region. Photoproduction of ω mesons is separated into its natural- (σN) and unnatural- (σU) parity-exchange contributions. The Eγ and t dependence and the spin density matrix of the unnatural-parity-exchange contribution are consistent with a one-pion-exchange process. The natural-parity-exchange part has characteristics similar to ρ0 production. At 9.3 GeV the ratio of σ(ρ0) to σN(ω) is ∼ 7. The slope of the φ differential cross section is ∼ 4.5 GeV−2, smaller than that of ρ0 and ω production. Natural-parity exchange is the main contributor to φ production. No evidence for higher-mass vector mesons is found in ππ, πππ, or KK¯ final states. The s and t dependences of Compton scattering as calculated from ρ, ω, and φ photoproduction using vector-meson dominance agree with experiment, but the predicted Compton cross section is too small by a factor of 2.
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