Anomalous f_1 exchange in vector meson photoproduction asymmetries

We perform an analysis of the elastic production of vector mesons with polarized photon beams at high energy in order to investigate the validity of a recently proposed dynamical mechanism based on the dominance of the f_1 trajectory at large momentum transfer. The density matrix characterizing the angular distributions of the vector meson decays is calculated within an exchange model which includes the Pomeron and the f_1. The asymmetries of these decays turn out to be very useful to disentangle the role of these exchanges since their effect depends crucially on their quantum numbers which are different. The observables analyzed are accessible with present experimental facilities.Comment: 10 pages, REVTeX, 4 figures, some figures are corrected, conclusions unchange

The Evidence for a Pentaquark Signal and Kinematic Reflections

Several recent experiments have reported evidence for a narrow baryon resonance with positive strangeness ($\Theta^+$) at a mass of 1.54 GeV/$c^2$. Baryons with $S=+1$ cannot be conventional $qqq$ states and the reports have thus generated much theoretical speculation about the nature of possible $S=+1$ baryons, including a 5-quark, or pentaquark, interpretation. We show that narrow enhancements in the $K^+n$ effective mass spectrum can be generated as kinematic reflections resulting from the decay of mesons, such as the $f_2(1275)$, the $a_2(1320)$ and the $\rho_3(1690)$.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure

Color Dipole Systematics of the Diffraction Slope in Diffractive Photo- and Electroproduction of Vector Mesons

We present the first evaluation of the color dipole diffraction slope from the data on diffractive photo- and electroproduction of vector mesons. The energy and dipole size dependence of the found dipole diffraction slope are consistent with the color dipole gBFKL dynamics.Comment: 11 pages including 2 figure

Vector Meson Photoproduction with an Effective Lagrangian in the Quark Model

A quark model approach to the photoproduction of vector mesons off nucleons is proposed. Its starting point is an effective Lagrangian of the interaction between the vector meson and the quarks inside the baryon, which generates the non-diffractive s- and u- channel resonance contributions. Additional t-channel $\pi^0$ and $\sigma$ exchanges are included for the $\omega$ and $\rho^0$ production respectively to account for the large diffractive behavior in the small $t$ region as suggested by Friman and Soyeur. The numerical results are presented for the $\omega$ and $\rho$ productions in four isospin channels with the same set of parameters, and they are in good agreement with the available data not only in $\omega$ and $\rho^0$ productions but also in the charged $\rho$ productions where the additional t-channel $\sigma$ exchange does not contribute so that it provides an important test to this approach. The investigation is also extended to the $\phi$ photoproduction, and the initial results show that the non-diffractive behavior of the $\phi$ productions in the large $t$ region can be described by the s- and u- channel contributions with significantly smaller coupling constants, which is consistent with the findings in the similar studies in the QHD framework. The numerical investigation has also shown that polarization observables are essential for identifying so-called "missing resonances".Comment: 36 pages, 10 PS figures, extended version of nucl-th/9711061 and nucl-th/9803021, submitted to PR

The Wave Function of 2S Radially Excited Vector Mesons from Data for Diffraction Slope

In the color dipole gBFKL dynamics we predict a strikingly different Q^2 and energy dependence of the diffraction slope for the elastic production of ground state V(1S) and radially excited V'(2S) light vector mesons. The color dipole model predictions for the diffraction slope for \rho^0 and \phi^0 production are in a good agreement with the data from the fixed target and collider HERA experiments. We present how a different form of anomalous energy and Q^2 dependence of the diffraction slope for V'(2S) production leads to a different position of the node in radial wave function and discuss a possibility how to determine this position from the fixed target and HERA data.Comment: 20 pages and 6 figures. Title change

Systematic Regge theory analysis of omega photoproduction

Systematic analysis of available data for $\omega$-meson photoproduction is given in frame of Regge theory. At photon energies above 20 GeV the $\gamma{+}p{\to}\omega{+}p$ reaction is entirely dominated by Pomeron exchange. However, it was found that Pomeron exchange model can not reproduce the $\gamma{+}p{\to}\rho{+}p$ and $\gamma{+}p{\to}\omega{+}p$ data at high energies simultaneously with the same set of parameters. The comparison between $\rho$ and $\omega$ data indicates a large room for meson exchange contribution to $\omega$-meson photoproduction at low energies. It was found that at low energies the dominant contribution comes from $\pi$ and $f_2$-meson exchanges. There is smooth transition between the meson exchange model at low energies and Regge theory at high energies.Comment: 7 pages, 8 figures, revtex

An isotopic effect in phi photoproduction at a few GeV

A distinct isotopic effect in phi photoproduction at 2-5 GeV region is identified by examining the production amplitudes due to Pomeron-exchange and meson-exchange mechanisms. This effect is mainly caused by the pi-eta interference constrained by SU(3) symmetry and the isotopic structure of the gamma NN coupling in the direct phi-radiation amplitude. It can be tested experimentally by measuring differences in the polarization observables between the gamma-p and gamma-n reactions.Comment: 11 pages, 6 figure

Hard exclusive photoproduction of Φ\Phi mesons

We calculate the differential cross section and single-polarization observables for the reaction $\gamma p \to \Phi p$ within perturbative QCD, treating the proton as a quark-diquark system. The phenomenological couplings of gauge bosons to (spatially extended) diquarks and the quark-diquark distribution amplitude of the proton are adopted from previous investigations of baryon form factors and two-photon processes. Going beyond leading order, we take into account hadron-mass effects by means of a systematic expansion in the small parameter (hadron mass/ photon energy). With the $\Phi$-meson distribution amplitude taken from the literature our predictions for the differential cross section at | t | \agt 4 \text{GeV}^2 seem to provide a reasonable extrapolation of the low-t data and are also comparable in magnitude with the results of a two-gluon exchange model in which the gluons are considered as a remnant of the pomeron. For momentum transfers of a few GeV hadron-mass effects appear still to be sizeable.Comment: 37 pages, 7 figures, uses RevTeX styl

Color Transparency versus Quantum Coherence in Electroproduction of Vector Mesons off Nuclei

So far no theoretical tool for the comprehensive description of exclusive electroproduction of vector mesons off nuclei at medium energies has been developed. We suggest a light-cone QCD formalism which is valid at any energy and incorporates formation effects (color transparency), the coherence length and the gluon shadowing. At medium energies color transparency (CT) and the onset of coherence length (CL) effects are not easily separated. Indeed, although nuclear transparency measured by the HERMES experiment rises with Q^2, it agrees with predictions of the vector dominance model (VDM) without any CT effects. Our new results and observations are: (i) the good agreement with the VDM found earlier is accidental and related to the specific correlation between Q^2 and CL for HERMES kinematics; (ii) CT effects are much larger than have been estimated earlier within the two channel approximation. They are even stronger at low than at high energies and can be easily identified by HERMES or at JLab; (iii) gluon shadowing which is important at high energies is calculated and included; (iv) our parameter-free calculations explain well available data for variation of nuclear transparency with virtuality and energy of the photon; (v) predictions for electroproduction of \rho and \phi are provided for future measurements at HERMES and JLab.Comment: Latex 57 pages and 17 figure

KKbar photoproduction from protons

We study the contribution of the Drell mechanism driven by K^+ and K^- exchange to the reaction gamma N -> KKbar N. Our calculation implements the full KN and KbarN reaction amplitudes in the form of partial wave amplitudes taken from a meson-exchange model (KN) and a partial wave analysis (KbarN), respectively. Comparing our results to data of the LAMP2 collaboration we observe that the Drell mechanism alone cannot describe the large Lambda(1520) photoproduction rate observed experimentally. We argue that the discrepancy could be due to significant contributions from K*-meson exchange with subsequent excitation of the Lambda(1520) resonance. After adding such contributions to our model a good agreement of the LAMP2 experiment is achieved. When applying the same model to the recent SAPHIR data we find an excellent description of the K^+p spectrum and can determine the parameters of the Lambda(1600) P01 resonance, M_R = 1617 +/- 2 MeV and Gamma_R = 117 +/- 4 MeV, from the K^-p mass distribution.Comment: updated version, analysis of new CLAS data included, 11 pages, 11 figure