Quasi-free $pi^0$ Photoproduction from the Bound Nucleon

Differential cross-sections for quasi-free $pi^0$ photoproduction from the proton and neutron bound in the deuteron have been measured for $E_gamma= 200 - 400$ MeV at $theta^{rm lab}_gamma = 136.2^circ$ usind the Glasgow photon tagger at MAMI, the Mainz 48 cm $varnothing$ $times$ 64 cm NaI(Tl) photon detector and the Gottingen SENECA recoil detector. For the proton measurements made with both liquid deuterium and liquid hydrogen targets allow direct comparison of free $pi^0$ photoproduction cross-sections as extracted from the bound proton data with experimental free cross sections which are found to be in reasonable agreement below 320 MeV. At higher energies the free cross sections extracted from quasifree data are significantly smaller than the experimental free cross sections and theoretical predictions based on multipole analysis. For the first time, free neutron cross sections have been extracted in the $Delta$-region. They are also in agreement with the predictions from multipole analysis up to 320 MeV and significantly smaller at higher photon energies.