Search for Strangeonia in Photoproduction using CLAS

Abstract

Abstract.The HyCLAS experiment at Jefferson Lab is a program to search for new and unusual mesons produced via photoproduction. The strangeonia sector is poorly known and a main component of this program is a search for new strangeonium states. The reaction γ p → p φ η is an ideal channel to look for strangeonium states due to the strangeness content of both the φ and η. The data was acquired at the JLAB CLAS facility using a 4 -5.5 GeV tagged photon beam. The φ meson is identified via the K + K − decay. The recoil proton is observed in the CLAS spectrometer and the η meson is identified through the missing mass. Also of interest is the search for strangeonia decaying to φ π 0 and φ ω. These channels are OZI suppressed for qq mesons and an observation of a meson decaying to these channels would provide a strong evidence of mesons beyond qq. Preliminary results describing the data quality, kinematics and dynamics will be shown.