$J/\psi-007$ Experiment: A Near Threshold $J/\psi$ Photo-production Measurement in Hall C at Jefferson Lab

We report on the Jefferson Lab Hall C experiment E12-16-007 ($J/\psi$-007) where we measured the 2D $J/\psi$ photoproduction cross-section versus momentum transfer $t$ and photon energy $E_{\gamma}$ in the kinematic region of the LHCb hidden-charm pentaquark states. The experiment used a high-intensity real photon beam generated by a 10.6 GeV incident electron beam traversing a copper radiator upstream of a liquid hydrogen target. The two high momentum spectrometers of Hall C, HMS, and SHMS were used to detect the $e^{+} e^{-}$ and $\mu^{+} \mu^{-}$ di-lepton $J/\psi$ decay pairs in coincidence. The spectrometers momentum and angle settings scan a photon beam energy range between 9.1 GeV and 10.6 GeV and $|t|$ up to 5 $GeV^{2}$. The measurements' sensitivity to the $s$-channel resonant pentaquarks signals is maximal at larger $|t|$. We will present preliminary results of the differential and total $J/\psi$ photoproduction cross-section.