Measurement of exclusive $${\varvec{{{{\pi ^+\pi ^-}}}}}$$ and $${\varvec{{{{\rho ^0}}}}}$$ meson photoproduction at HERA

AbstractExclusive photoproduction of $${{\rho ^0}} (770)$$ ρ 0 ( 770 ) mesons is studied using the H1 detector at the ep collider HERA. A sample of about 900,000 events is used to measure single- and double-differential cross sections for the reaction $$\gamma p \rightarrow \pi ^{+}\pi ^{-}Y$$ γ p → π + π - Y . Reactions where the proton stays intact ($${{{m_Y}} {=}m_p}$$ m Y = m p ) are statistically separated from those where the proton dissociates to a low-mass hadronic system ($$m_p{<}{{m_Y}} {<}10~{{\text {GeV}}} $$ m p < m Y < 10 GeV ). The double-differential cross sections are measured as a function of the invariant mass $$m_{\pi \pi }$$ m π π of the decay pions and the squared 4-momentum transfer t at the proton vertex. The measurements are presented in various bins of the photon–proton collision energy $${{W_{\gamma p}}} $$ W γ p . The phase space restrictions are $$0.5\le m_{\pi \pi } \le 2.2~{{\text {GeV}}} $$ 0.5 ≤ m π π ≤ 2.2 GeV , $$\vert t\vert \le 1.5~{{\text {GeV}^2}} $$ | t | ≤ 1.5 GeV 2 , and $$20 \le W_{\gamma p} \le 80~{{\text {GeV}}} $$ 20 ≤ W γ p ≤ 80 GeV . Cross section measurements are presented for both elastic and proton-dissociative scattering. The observed cross section dependencies are described by analytic functions. Parametrising the $${m_{\pi \pi }}$$ m π π dependence with resonant and non-resonant contributions added at the amplitude level leads to a measurement of the $${{\rho ^0}} (770)$$ ρ 0 ( 770 ) meson mass and width at $$m_\rho = 770.8{}^{+2.6}_{-2.7}~({\text {tot.}})~{{\text {MeV}}} $$ m ρ = 770.8 - 2.7 + 2.6 ( tot. ) MeV and $$\Gamma _\rho = 151.3 {}^{+2.7}_{-3.6}~({\text {tot.}})~{{\text {MeV}}} $$ Γ ρ = 151.3 - 3.6 + 2.7 ( tot. ) MeV , respectively. The model is used to extract the $${{\rho ^0}} (770)$$ ρ 0 ( 770 ) contribution to the $$\pi ^{+}\pi ^{-}$$ π + π - cross sections and measure it as a function of t and $${W_{\gamma p}}$$ W γ p . In a Regge asymptotic limit in which one Regge trajectory $$\alpha (t)$$ α ( t ) dominates, the intercept $$\alpha (t{=}0) = 1.0654\ {}^{+0.0098}_{-0.0067}~({\text {tot.}})$$ α ( t = 0 ) = 1.0654 - 0.0067 + 0.0098 ( tot. ) and the slope $$\alpha ^\prime (t{=}0) = 0.233 {}^{+0.067 }_{-0.074 }~({\text {tot.}}) ~{{\text {GeV}^{-2}}} $$ α ′ ( t = 0 ) = 0.233 - 0.074 + 0.067 ( tot. ) GeV - 2 of the t dependence are extracted for the case $$m_Y{=}m_p$$ m Y = m p .