Exclusive $\pi^0$ production and Compton scattering at GlueX

The GlueX experiment in Jefferson Lab’s Hall D aims to explore the gluonic degrees of freedom within hadrons through high-energy meson photoproduction. Using a 9 GeV linearly-polarized photon beam, the first measurements of the $\Sigma$ beam asymmetry for pseudoscalar production have already provided insight into the meson production mechanisms at these energies. In this work, studies of the reaction $\gamma p \rightarrow \pi^0 p$ will be presented along with an exploratory study of the Compton scattering process $\gamma p \rightarrow \gamma p$, utilizing the fine-grained calorimetry of the GlueX experiment.