The Evolution of t dependence in Meson Photoproduction

Studies of single-meson photoproduction off the proton over the past few decades have yielded tremendous amounts of data on differential cross sections. The wealth of data can be used to understand the exchange mechanisms responsible for the production of specific final-state hadrons. At low momentum transfer the the differential cross section $d\sigma/dt $ can be parameterized by the t-slope parameter b, where $d\sigma/dt \sim e^{-bt} $. We have determined b as a function of photon beam energy for the reactions $\gamma \text{p} \rightarrow \text{K}^{+} \Sigma^{0} $, $\gamma \text{p} \rightarrow \text{K}^{+} \Lambda $, $\gamma \text{p} \rightarrow \text{p} \omega $, $\gamma \text{p} \rightarrow \text{p} \eta $, $\gamma \text{p} \rightarrow \text{p} \eta^{'} $, $\gamma \text{p} \rightarrow \text{p} \rho^{0} $, $\gamma \text{p} \rightarrow \text{p} \pi^{0} $, and $\gamma \text{p} \rightarrow \text{p} \phi $. Preliminary results will be presented.