A New Measurement of Exclusive \boldmath$\rho^{\circ}$ Photoproduction at HERA

Abstract

Exclusive $\rho^{\circ}$ photoproduction has been measured with high statistics by the H1 Collaboration. The kinematical range is $20 < W < 90$ GeV, $|t|<3$ GeV$^2$ and $Q^2<4$ GeV$^2$. Cross sections are measured differentially in $W$ and $t$ and allow the extraction of the Pomeron trajectory, for the first time using $\rho^{\circ}$ photoproduction data of one single experiment. The preliminary result, $\alpha_{\mathbb{P}} (t) = 1.093 \pm 0.003 (stat.) ^{+0.008}_{-0.007} (syst.) + (0.116 \pm 0.027 (stat.) ^{+0.036}_{-0.046} (syst.)$ GeV$^{-2} \cdot t$, deviates significantly from the canonical expectation.