Quasi-free π0 photoproduction from the bound nucleon.

Differential cross-sections for quasi-free π⁰ photoproduction from the proton and neutron bound in the deuteron have been measured for E_γ 200-400 MeV at θ_γ^lab = 136.2° using the Glasgow photon tagger at MAMI, the Mainz 48 cm ø × 64 cm NaI(Tl) photon detector and the Göttingen SENECA recoil detector. For the proton measurements made with both liquid-deuterium and liquid-hydrogen targets allow direct comparison of "free" π⁰ photoproduction cross-sections as extracted from the bound-proton data with experimental free cross-sections which are found to be in reasonable agreement below 320 MeV. At higher energies the "free" cross-sections extracted from quasi-free data are significantly smaller than the experimental free cross-sections and theoretical predictions based on multipole analysis. For the first time, "free" neutron cross-section have been extracted in the Δ-region. They are also in agreement with the predictions from multipole analysis up to 320 MeV and significantly smaller at higher photon energies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]