Measurement of elastic ω photoproduction at HERA ZEUS Collaboration

The reaction γp →ωp(ω → π⁺π^?π⁰ and π⁰ → γ γ) has been studied in ep interactions using the ZEUS detector at photon-proton centre-of-mass energies between 70 and 90GeV and ∣t∣ < 0.6GeV², where t is the squared four momentum transferred at the proton vertex. The elastic ω photoproduction cross section has been measured to be σ_{γp → ωp} = 1.21 ±0.12 ±0.23 μb. The differential cross section dσ_γp→ωp/d¦t¦ has an exponential shape e^?b∣t∣ with a slope b =10.0 ± 1.2 ± 1.3 GeV^?2. The angular distributions of the decay pions are consistent with s-channel helicity conservation. When compared to low energy data, the features of ω photoproduction as measured at HERA energies are in agreement with those of a soft diffractive process. Previous measurements of the ρ⁰ and ? photoproduction cross sections at HERA show a similar behaviour.