Double-spin asymmetries in the cross section of electroproduction of $\rho^0$ and $\phi$ mesons on the proton and deuteron are measured at the HERMES experiment. The photoabsorption asymmetry in exclusive $\rho^0$ electroproduction on the proton exhibits a positive tendency. This is consistent with theoretical predictions that the exchange of an object with unnatural parity contributes to exclusive $\rho^0$ electroproduction by transverse photons. The photoabsorption asymmetry on the deuteron is found to be consistent with zero. Double-spin asymmetries in $\rho^0$ and $\phi $ meson electroproduction by quasi-real photons were also found to be consistent with zero: the asymmetry in the case of the $\phi$ meson is compatible with a theoretical prediction which involves $s\bar{s}$ knockout from the nucleon.
The photoabsorption asymmetry A1 for exclusive RHO0 production.
The photoabsorption asymmetry A1 for exclusive PHI electroproduction.
The photoabsorption asymmetry A1 for electroproduction of RHO0 mesons by quasi-real photons.
None
The photoabsorption asymmetry A1 for exclusive RHO0 production.
The photoabsorption asymmetry A1 for exclusive RHO0 production as a function of Q**2.
The photoabsorption asymmetry A1 for exclusive RHO0 production as a function of W.
Measurements of the cross section for exclusive virtual-photoproduction of rho^0 mesons from hydrogen are reported. The data were collected by the HERMES experiment using 27.5 GeV positrons incident on a hydrogen gas target in the HERA storage ring. The invariant mass W of the photon-nucleon system ranges from 4.0 to 6.0 GeV, while the negative squared four-momentum Q^2 of the virtual photon varies from 0.7 to 5.0 GeV^2. The present data together with most of the previous data at W > 4 GeV are well described by a model that infers the W-dependence of the cross section from the dependence on the Bjorken scaling variable x of the unpolarized structure function for deep-inelastic scattering. In addition, a model calculation based on Off-Forward Parton Distributions gives a fairly good account of the longitudinal component of the rho^0 production cross section for Q^2 > 2 GeV^2.
Cross sections are corrected for radiative effects (which typically amount s to 18 PCT).
Longitudinal cross sections. The listed uncertainties include both the total error on the measured RHO0 photoproduction cross sections and the error on theparametrization of R for W<7 GeV.
Forum