Inclusive photoproduction of π 0 mesons at 6 GeV

Abstract

An experiment has been performed to study the inclusive photoproduction of π 0 mesons. Photoproduced π 0's were detected in a hodoscope consisting of 14 lead glass Cerenkov counters. To obtain the cross sections at a photon energy of 6 GeV we used the photon-difference method. Data are presented in terms of the Feynman variable x = q ‖ ∗(√s/2) and the trnasverse momentum q⊥. We have measured four q⊥ distributions at x = 0.2, 0.4, 0.6 and 0.8. The results dhow that the π 0 rate at small values of q⊥ is smaller than the π± rate. The data can be fitted smoothly by a form A exp (− Bq ⊥ 2) with a value about 3.5 GeV −2 for the slope parameter B.