Elastic J/ψ production at HERA

Abstract

Cross sections for elastic production of J/ψ mesons in photoproduction and electroproduction are measured in electron proton collisions at HERA using an integrated luminosity of 55 pb-1. Results are presented for photon virtualities Q2 up to 80 GeV2. The dependence on the photon-proton centre of mass energy Wγp is analysed in the range 40≤Wγp≤305 GeV in photoproduction and 40≤Wγp≤160 GeV in electroproduction. The Wγp dependences of the cross sections do not change significantly with Q2 and can be described by models based on perturbative QCD. Within such models, the data show a high sensitivity to the gluon density of the proton in the domain of low Bjorken x and low Q2. Differential cross sections dσ/dt, where t is the squared four-momentum transfer at the proton vertex, are measured in the range |t|<1.2 GeV2 as functions of Wγp and Q2. Effective Pomeron trajectories are determined for photoproduction and electroproduction. The J/ψ production and decay angular distributions are consistent with s-channel helicity conservation. The ratio of the cross sections for longitudinally and transversely polarised photons is measured as a function of Q2 and is found to be described by perturbative QCD based models.