Exclusive $\pi^0$ production and Compton scattering at GlueX
POSTER
Abstract
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.
*This work is supported by a summer research fellowship from the College of William & Mary Undergraduate Science Education and Research Program, funded by a Howard Hughes Medical Institute grant and the Department of Energy contract DE-SC0018224