DRAFT: Photoproduction of the $rho^0$ meson on the proton at large momentum transfer

The differential cross section, $dsigma/dt$, for $rho^0$ meson photoproduction on the proton above the resonance region ($2.6<W<2.9$ GeV) was measured up to a momentum transfer $-t = 5$ GeV$^2$ using the CLAS detector at the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility. The $rho^0$ channel was extracted from the measured two charged-pion cross section by fitting the $pi^+pi^-$ and $ppi^+$ invariant masses. The low momentum transfer region shows the typical diffractive pattern expected from Reggeon-exchange. The flatter behavior at large -t cannot be explained solely in terms of QCD-inspired two-gluon exchange models. The data indicate that other processes, like quark interchange, are important to fully describe $rho$ photoproduction.