Exclusive $$\rho ^0$$ ρ 0 meson photoproduction with a leading neutron at HERA

A first measurement is presented of exclusive photoproduction of $$\rho ^0$$ mesons associated with leading neutrons at HERA. The data were taken with the H1 detector in the years 2006 and 2007 at a centre-of-mass energy of $$\sqrt{s}=319$$ GeV and correspond to an integrated luminosity of 1.16 pb $$^{-1}$$ . The $$\rho ^0$$ mesons with transverse momenta $$p_T0.35$$ , are detected in the Forward Neutron Calorimeter. The phase space of the measurement is defined by the photon virtuality $$Q^2 < 2$$ GeV $$^2$$ , the total energy of the photon–proton system $$20 < W_{\gamma p}< 100$$ GeV and the polar angle of the leading neutron $$\theta _n < 0.75$$ mrad. The cross section of the reaction $$\gamma p \rightarrow \rho ^0 n \pi ^+$$ is measured as a function of several variables. The data are interpreted in terms of a double peripheral process, involving pion exchange at the proton vertex followed by elastic photoproduction of a $$\rho ^0$$ meson on the virtual pion. In the framework of one-pion-exchange dominance the elastic cross section of photon-pion scattering, $$\sigma ^\mathrm{el}(\gamma \pi ^+ \rightarrow \rho ^0\pi ^+)$$ , is extracted. The value of this cross section indicates significant absorptive corrections for the exclusive reaction $$\gamma p \rightarrow \rho ^0 n \pi ^+$$ .