Exclusive Electroproduction of the $\pi^0$ Meson off of the Nucleon

Nucleon transition amplitudes offer insight into the transition between hadronic degrees of freedom and quark-gluon degrees of freedom. Since many resonant excitations of the nucleon couple strongly to single pion production, one can hope to probe the interesting transition region through pion production measurements. A study of $\pi^0$ production from a nucleon target at $Q^2$ of 6.4 and 7.7 GeV$^2$ has recently been undertaken by the Jefferson lab Hall C collaboration. The differential cross sections can be used to constrain excitation form factors $G^\star_M$ and several multipole transition amplitudes for the lowest lying nucleon excitation, the $\Delta(1232)$ resonance. Differential cross sections as they relate to both non-resonant processes and resonance excitations will be discussed. Information on the excitation form factors and multipole amplitudes will be presented along with the implications of various theoretical predictions.