Measurement of exclusive omega electroproduction at HERA

TL;DR

This paper reports the measurement of exclusive omega meson electroproduction at HERA, analyzing cross sections and ratios across various kinematic ranges to compare with other vector meson productions.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed comparison of omega electroproduction properties with rho, phi, and J/psi at high W, expanding understanding of vector meson production mechanisms.

Findings

Measured omega electroproduction cross section: 0.108 ± 0.014(stat.) ± 0.026(syst.) nb.

Presented cross-section ratios omega/rho and omega/phi as functions of W and Q^2.

Compared omega production properties with those of rho, phi, and J/psi at high W.

Abstract

The exclusive electroproduction of omega mesons, ep -> e omega p, has been studied in the kinematic range 3<Q^2<20 GeV^2, 40<W<120 GeV and |t|<0.6 GeV^2 with the ZEUS detector at HERA using an integrated luminosity of 37.7 pb^{-1}. The omega mesons were identified via the decay omega -> pi^+pi^-pi^0. The exclusive (ep -> e omega p) cross section in the above kinematic region is 0.108 +- 0.014(stat.) +- 0.026(syst.) nb. The reaction ep -> e phi p, phi -> pi^+pi^-pi^0, has also been measured. The cross sections, as well as the cross-section ratios omega/rho and omega/phi, are presented as a function of W and Q^2. Thus, for the first time, the properties of omega electroproduction can be compared to those of rho^0, phi and J/psi electroproduction at high W.