Coherent vector meson photoproduction from deuterium at intermediate energies

Abstract

We analyze the cross section for vector meson photoproduction off a deuteron for the intermediate range of photon energies starting at a few giga-electron-volts above the threshold and higher. We reproduce the steps in the derivation of the conventional nonrelativistic Glauber expression based on an effective diagrammatic method while making corrections for Fermi motion and intermediate-energy kinematic effects. We show that, for intermediate-energy vector meson production, the usual Glauber factorization breaks down, and we derive corrections to the usual Glauber method to linear order in longitudinal nucleon momentum. The purpose of our analysis is to establish methods for probing interesting physics in the production mechanism for \ensuremath{\phi} mesons and heavier vector mesons. We demonstrate how neglecting the breakdown of Glauber factorization can lead to errors in measurements of basic cross sections extracted from nuclear data.