Exclusive rho0 electroproduction

Abstract

Exclusive rho0 electroproduction at HERA has been studied with the ZEUS detector, using 120 pb{-1} integrated luminosity, in the kinematic range of photon virtuality of 2 < Q2 < 160 GeV2, and gamma* p center-of-mass energy of 32 < W < 180 GeV. The results include the Q2 and W dependence of the gamma* p --> rho0 p cross section and the distribution of the squared-four-momentum transfer to the proton, t. Also included is the ratio of longitudinal to transverse gamma* p cross section as a function of Q2, W and t. Finally, the effective Pomeron trajectory was extracted. The results are compared to various theoretical predictions, none of which are able to reproduce all the features of the data.