| Abstract: | The quark structure of the $f_2(1270)$ meson has, for many years, been
assumed to be a pure quark-antiquark ($qar{q}$) resonance with quantum
numbers $J^{PC} = 2^{++}$. Recently, it was proposed that the $f_2(1270)$ is a
molecular state made from the attractive interaction of two $
ho$-mesons. Such
a state would be expected to decay strongly to final states with charged pions,
due to the dominant decay $
ho o pi^+ pi^-$, whereas decay to two neutral
pions would likely be suppressed. Here, we measure for the first time the
reaction $gamma p o pi^0 pi^0 p$, using the CLAS detector at Jefferson Lab
for incident beam energies between 3.6-5.4~GeV. Differential cross sections,
$dsigma / dt$, for $f_2(1270)$ photoproduction are extracted with good
precision, due to low backgrounds, and are compared with theoretical
calculations. |
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