Photoproduction of πΔ(1236) from protons below 1.1 GeV

A model for the annihilation of electron-positron pairs into hadrons for q² = s > 4 GeV² and up to the highest measured energies is developed. The main ingredients are point-like couplings between three resonances and photons and the high level of opening thresholds that follows from an effective Lagrangian formalism. The model gives an almost constant annihilation cross section, soft pions everywhere and at all energies, high multiplicities and a large absolute cross section. The details of all exclusive channels are also predicted. Other consequences of this point of view concern the discovery of hitherto ignored couplings in low-energy photon initiated reactions. We argue that the energy regime explored by SPEAR is not the asymptopia and we discuss possible further constancy of the cross section in a range of s.