Proton Dissociative Rho and Elastic Phi Electroproduction at HERA

Abstract

The electroproduction of rho mesons with proton diffractive dissociation for Q^2 > 7 GeV^2 and the elastic electroproduction of Phi mesons for Q^2 > 6 Gev^2 are studied in e^+ p collisions at HERA with the H1 detector, for an integrated luminosity of 2.8 pb-1. The dependence of the cross sections on P_t^2 and Q^2 is measured, and the vector meson polarisation obtained. The cross section ratio between proton dissociative and elastic production of rho mesons is measured and discussed in the framework of the factorisation hypothesis of diffractive vertices. The ratio of the elastic cross section for Phi and rho meson production is investigated as a function of Q^2.