The differential cross section, dσ/dt, for ρ0 meson photoproduction on the proton above the resonance region (2.6<W<2.9 GeV) was measured up to a momentum transfer −t=5
Nearby in the stack
GeV
2
using the CLAS detector at the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility. The
ρ0
channel was extracted from the measured two charged-pion cross section by fitting the
π+π−
and
pπ+
invariant masses. The low momentum transfer region shows the typical diffractive pattern expected from Reggeon-exchange. The flatter behavior at large -t cannot be explained solely in terms of QCD-inspired two-gluon exchange models. The data indicate that other processes, like quark interchange, are important to fully describe