Differential cross sections for eta photoproduction off protons have been measured at E_gamma = 1.6 - 2.4 GeV in the backward direction. A bump structure has been observed above 2.0 GeV in the total energy. No such bump is observed in cross sections for eta, omega and pi0 photoproductions. It is inferred that this unique structure in eta photoproduction is due to a baryon resonance with a large portion of ss-bar strongly coupled to the etaN channel.
Differential cross sections and photon beam asymmetries for $pi^0$ photoproduction have been measured at $E_gamma$ = 1.5--2.4 GeV and at the $pi^0$ scattering angles, --1 $<$ cos$Theta_{c.m.} <$ --0.6. The energy-dependent slope of differential cross sections for $u$-channel $pi^0$ production has been determined. An enhancement at backward angles is found above $E_gamma$ = 2.0 GeV. This is inferred to be due to the $u$-channel contribution and/or resonances. Photon beam asymmetries have been obtained for the first time at backward angles. A strong angular dependence has been found at $E_gamma >$ 2.0 GeV, which may be due to the unknown high-mass resonances.
We report the measurement of differential cross sections for $omega$ and $eta$ photoproduction from protons at backward angles ($-1.0<cosTheta_{C.M}^{X}<-0.8$) using linearly polarized photons at $E_{gamma}=$$1.5-3.0$ GeV. Differential cross sections for $omega$ mesons are larger than the predicted $u$-channel contribution in the energy range $2.0leqsqrt{s}leq2.4$ GeV. The differential cross sections for $omega$ and $eta$ mesons become closer to the predicted $u$-channel contribution at $sqrt{s}>2.4$ GeV. A bump structure in the $sqrt{s}$ dependence of the differential cross sections for $eta$ mesons was observed at $sqrt{s}sim$2.35 GeV.
Photoproduction cross sections are reported for the reaction $gamma pto peta$ using energy-tagged photons and the CLAS spectrometer at Jefferson Laboratory. The $eta$ mesons are detected in their dominant charged decay mode, $etato pi^+pi^-pi^0$, and results on differential cross sections are presented for incident photon energies between 1.2 and 4.7 GeV. These new $eta$ photoproduction data are consistent with earlier CLAS results but extend the energy range beyond the nucleon resonance region into the Regge regime. The normalized angular distributions are also compared with the experimental results from several other experiments, and with predictions of $eta$ MAID,2018 and the latest solution of the Bonn-Gatchina coupled-channel analysis. Differential cross sections $dsigma/dt$ are presented for incident photon energies $E_gamma > 2.9$ GeV ($W > 2.5$ GeV), and compared with predictions which are based on Regge trajectories exchange in the $t$-channel (Regge models). The data confirm the expected dominance of $rho$, $omega$ vector-meson exchange in an analysis by the Joint Physics Analysis Center.
Differential cross sections for $gamma p to K^+Lambda(1405)$ and $gamma p to K^+Sigma^0(1385)$ reactions have been measured in the photon energy range from 1.5 to 2.4 GeV and the angular range of $0.8<cos(Theta)<1.0$ for the $K^+$ scattering angle in the center-of-mass system. This data is the first measurement of the $Lambda(1405)$ photoproduction cross section. The lineshapes of LamS measured in $Sigma^+pi^-$ and $Sigma^-pi^+$ decay modes were different with each other, indicating a strong interference of the isospin 0 and 1 terms of the $Sigmapi$ scattering amplitudes. The ratios of LamS production to SigS production were measured in two photon energy ranges: near the production threshold ($1.5<E_gamma<2.0$ GeV) and far from it ($2.0 <E_gamma<2.4$ GeV). The observed ratio decreased in the higher photon energy region, which may suggest different production mechanisms and internal structures for these hyperon resonances.
We report measurements of the photon beam asymmetry $Sigma$ for the reactions $vec{gamma}pto ppi^0$ and $vec{gamma}pto peta $ from the GlueX experiment using a 9 GeV linearly-polarized, tagged photon beam incident on a liquid hydrogen target in Jefferson Labs Hall D. The asymmetries, measured as a function of the proton momentum transfer, possess greater precision than previous $pi^0$ measurements and are the first $eta$ measurements in this energy regime. The results are compared with theoretical predictions based on $t$-channel, quasi-particle exchange and constrain the axial-vector component of the neutral meson production mechanism in these models.