ρ⁰ Photoproduction off Protons in CLAS

Photoproduction of vector mesons is vital in elucidating various phenomena in nuclear physics. Studies of the lightest vector meson, ρ⁰, remain challenging due to its broad width of nearly 150 MeV and competition with the production of ∆ baryons. Consequently, cross-section data for ρ⁰ production are scarce, despite their importance to models based on Constituent Counting Rules and Regge Theory. This presentation briefly describes an ongoing analysis in which the differential cross section for ρ⁰ photoproduction off protons is extracted over a broader range of Mandelstam variables s and t than previously measured. The data were collected at Jefferson lab in 2008 using the CLAS detector. The experiment used a circularly polarized photon beam with energies ranging between 1.15 and 5.45 GeV incident on a liquid hydrogen target.