Exclusive $bm{pi^{0}p}$ electroproduction off protons in the resonance region at photon virtualities 0.4~GeV$bm{^{2}}$ $bm{leq~ Q^{2} leq~1}$~GeV$bm{^{2}}$


Abstract in English

The exclusive electroproduction process $ep rightarrow eppi^{0}$ was measured in the range of photon virtualities $Q^{2} = 0.4 - 1.0$~GeV$^{2}$ and the invariant mass range of the $ppi^{0}$ system of $W = 1.1 - 1.8$~GeV. These kinematics are covered in exclusive $pi^{0}$ electroproduction off the proton with nearly complete angular coverage in the $ppi^{0}$ center-of-mass system and with high statistical accuracy. Nearly 36000 cross section points were measured, and the structure functions $sigma_T+epsilonsigma_L$, $sigma_{LT}$, and $sigma_{TT}$, were extracted via fitting the $phi_{pi^{0}}$ dependence of the cross section. A Legendre polynomial expansion analysis demonstrates the sensitivity of our data to high-lying $N^*$ and $Delta^{*}$ resonances with $M~>~1.6$ GeV. As part of a broad effort to determine the electrocouplings of the $N^{*}$ and $Delta^{*}$ resonances using both single- and double-pion electroproduction, this dataset is crucial for the reliable extraction of the high-lying resonance electrocouplings from the combined isospin analysis of the $N pi$ and $pi^{+}pi^{-} p$ channels.

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