# XXIV International Workshop on Deep-Inelastic Scattering and Related Subjects (DIS16)

Apr 11 – 15, 2016
DESY Hamburg
Europe/Berlin timezone

## Exclusive &rho;0 Meson Photoproduction with a Leading Neutron at HERA

Apr 12, 2016, 12:00 PM
15m
SR4b (DESY Hamburg)

### SR4b

#### DESY Hamburg

Small-x, Diffraction and Vector Mesons

### Speaker

Dr Sergey Levonian (DESY)

### Description

A first measurement is presented of exclusive photoproduction of ρ0 mesons associated with leading neutrons at HERA. The data were taken with the H1 detector in the years 2006 and 2007 at a centre-of-mass energy of √=319 GeV and correspond to an integrated luminosity of 1.16 pb-1. The ρ0 mesons with transverse momenta p_T<1 GeV are reconstructed from their decays to charged pions, while leading neutrons carrying a large fraction of the incoming proton momentum, x_L>0.35, are detected in the Forward Neutron Calorimeter. The phase space of the measurement is defined by the photon virtuality Q2<2 GeV2, the total energy of the photon-proton system 20<W<100 GeV and the polar angle of the leading neutron θ_n<0.75 mrad. The cross section of the reaction γp → ρ0 n π+ is measured as a function of several variables. The data are interpreted in terms of a double peripheral process, involving pion exchange at the proton vertex followed by elastic photoproduction of a ρ0 meson on the virtual pion. In the framework of one-pion-exchange dominance the elastic cross section of photon-pion scattering, σ_el(γπ+ → ρ0π+), is extracted. The value of this cross section indicates significant absorptive corrections for the exclusive reaction studied.

 Slides