Invariant Mass of the $\phi \pi^0$ System.

Exotic mesons are mesons that differ in composition from a normal meson, and are signaled by having unusual spin-parity combinations. The ASU Meson Physics Group and the CLAS Collaboration are interested in finding exotic mesons that decay into $K^+ K^- \pi^0$. Since the $\phi$ meson decays $K^- K^+$, one path to studying the $K^- K^+ \pi^0$ channel is through $\phi \pi^0$ final states. The $\phi \pi^0$ final state is mainly expected to serve as a background to other exotic $K^+ K^- \pi^0$ final states. While $\phi \pi^0$ is a possible decay mode for an exotic meson, the decay to the $\phi \pi^0$ channel should be suppressed by more likely processes. By analyzing the reaction $e p \rightarrow e p \phi \pi^0$, we will search for exotic mesons and the vector meson C(1480), which has been reported to decay into $\phi \pi^0$, but has not yet been confirmed. I will present a distribution of invariant $\phi \pi^0$ mass.