Diffractive meson production from virtual photons with odd charge-parity exchange

R. Engel; D.Yu. Ivanov; R. Kirschner; L. Szymanowski

doi:doi:10.1007/s100529800752

EPJ

Diffractive meson production from virtual photons
with odd charge-parity exchange

R. Engel¹ - D.Yu. Ivanov^2,3 - R. Kirschner² - L. Szymanowski^2,4

¹ Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron DESY, D-22603 Hamburg, Germany
² Naturwissenschaftlich-Theoretisches Zentrum und Institut für Theoretische Physik, Universität Leipzig D-04109 Leipzig, Germany
³ Institute of Mathematics, 630090 Novosibirsk, Russia
⁴ Soltan Institute for Nuclear Studies, Hoza 69, 00-681 Warsaw, Poland

Received: 30 July 1997/ Published online: 20 February 1998

Abstract
We calculate the cross section of diffractive charge-parity C=+1 neutral meson production in virtual photon proton collision at high energies. Due to the opposite C-parities of photon and meson M⁺ ( $M^+ = \eta_C, \pi^0, a_2$ ) this process probes the t-channel C=-1 odderon exchange which is described here as noninteracting three-gluon exchange. Estimates for the cross section of inelastic diffractive process $\gamma^* p\to \eta_C X_p$ are presented. The total cross section of diffractive $\eta_C$ meson photoproduction is found to be 47 pb. The cross sections for the diffractive production of light mesons ( $\pi^0, a_2$ )in $\gamma^* p$ collisions are of the same order if the photon virtuality Q² is m²_C.