Eur. Phys. J. C (2006) 46: 585-603
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjc/s2006-02519-5

Experimental Physics

Elastic J/ψ production at HERA

Received: 7 October 2005
Revised: 3 February 2006
Published online: 27 April 2006

Abstract

Cross sections for elastic production of J/ψ mesons in photoproduction and electroproduction are measured in electron proton collisions at HERA using an integrated luminosity of 55 pb^-1. Results are presented for photon virtualities Q² up to 80 GeV². The dependence on the photon-proton centre of mass energy W_γp is analysed in the range 40≤W_γp≤305 GeV in photoproduction and 40≤W_γp≤160 GeV in electroproduction. The W_γp dependences of the cross sections do not change significantly with Q² and can be described by models based on perturbative QCD. Within such models, the data show a high sensitivity to the gluon density of the proton in the domain of low Bjorken x and low Q². Differential cross sections dσ/dt, where t is the squared four-momentum transfer at the proton vertex, are measured in the range |t|<1.2 GeV² as functions of W_γp and Q². Effective Pomeron trajectories are determined for photoproduction and electroproduction. The J/ψ production and decay angular distributions are consistent with s-channel helicity conservation. The ratio of the cross sections for longitudinally and transversely polarised photons is measured as a function of Q² and is found to be described by perturbative QCD based models.