Photoproduction of the omega meson on the proton at large momentum transfer

Phys Rev Lett. 2003 Jan 17;90(2):022002. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.90.022002. Epub 2003 Jan 16.

Abstract

The differential cross section, dsigma/dt, for omega meson exclusive photoproduction on the proton above the resonance region (2.6<W<2.9 GeV) was measured up to a momentum transfer -t=5 GeV2 using the CLAS detector at Jefferson Laboratory. The omega channel was identified by detecting a proton and pi(+) in the final state and using the missing mass technique. While the low momentum transfer region shows the typical diffractive pattern expected from Pomeron and Reggeon exchange, at large -t the differential cross section has a flat behavior. This feature can be explained by introducing quark interchange processes in addition to the QCD-inspired two-gluon exchange.