First measurement of direct photoproduction of the a 2 (1320) 0 meson on the proton
We present the first measurement of the reaction γ p → a 2 ( 1320 ) 0 p in the photon energy range 3.5– 5.5 Ge V and four-momentum transfer squared 0.2 < - t < 2.0 Ge V 2 . Data were collected with the CEBAF Large Acceptance Spectrometer detector at the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility. The a 2 resonance was detected by measuring the reaction γ p → π 0 η p and reconstructing the π 0 η invariant mass. The most prominent feature of the differential cross section is a dip at -t ≈ 0.55 Ge V 2 . This can be described in the framework of Regge phenomenology, where the exchange degeneracy hypothesis predicts a zero in the reaction amplitude for this value of the four-momentum transfer.