Photoproduction of Pseudoscalar Mesons

Abstract

Experiments that study the photoproduction of pseudoscalar mesons; pions, etas and kaons, have the potential to increase our knowledge of baryon and hyperon resonance properties. Recent experiments at JLab, Mainz, GRAAL, and Bonn are beginning to produce results in the form of polarization and asymmetry measurements and determinations of the differential and integrated cross sections. These new data are essential to the performance of Partial-Wave Analyses that are less model dependent and coupled-channels calculations that incorporate unitarity dynamically,combining hadronic reaction channels together with electromagnetic processes. This approach is necessary to extract resonance properties and may lead to the identification of missing, but predicted, resonances. Some recent experimental and phenomenological results for single and double pseudoscalar meson photoproduction are discussed.