Coherent Photo- and Leptoproduction of Vector Mesons from Deuterium

Abstract

We discuss the coherent photo- and leptoproduction of vector mesons from deuterium at intermediate (virtual) photon energies, 3 GeV < nu < 30 GeV. These processes provide several options to explore the space-time evolution of small size quark-gluon configurations. Furthermore, we study the dependence of the production cross section on the energy and momentum transfer t due to variations of the finite longitudinal interaction length. Kinematic regions are determined where the production cross section is most sensitive to the final state interaction of the initially produced hadronic wave packet. For unpolarized deuteron targets this double scattering contribution can be investigated mainly at large values of the momentum transfer t. For polarized targets kinematic windows sensitive to double scattering are available also at moderate t. We suggest several methods for an investigation of color coherence effects at intermediate energies.