Photoproduction of the $f_2(1270)$ meson using the CLAS detector
The quark structure of the $f_2(1270)$ meson has, for many years, been assumed to be a pure quark-antiquark ($q\bar{q}$) resonance with quantum numbers $J^{PC} = 2^{++}$. Recently, it was proposed that the $f_2(1270)$ is a molecular state made from the attractive interaction of two $ρ$-mesons. Such a state would be expected to decay strongly to final states with charged pions, due to the dominant decay $ρ\to π^+ π^-$, whereas decay to two neutral pions would likely be suppressed. Here, we measure for the first time the reaction $γp \to π^0 π^0 p$, using the CLAS detector at Jefferson Lab for incident beam energies between 3.6-5.4~GeV. Differential cross sections, $dσ/ dt$, for $f_2(1270)$ photoproduction are extracted with good precision, due to low backgrounds, and are compared with theoretical calculations.