Measurement of elastic J/ψ photoproduction at HERA

The reaction γ p → J/ψ p has been studied in ep interactions using the ZEUS detector at HERA. The cross section for elastic J/ψ photoproduction has been measured as a function of the photon-proton centre of mass energy W in the range 40 < W < 140 GeV at a median photon virtuality Q2 of 5 × 10−5 GeV2. The photoproduction cross section, σγp→ J/ψp, is observed to rise steeply with W. A fit to the data presented in this paper to determine the parameter δ in the form σγp→ J/ψp α Wδ yields the value δ = 0.92±0.14±0.10. The differential cross section dσ/d ¦t¦is presented over the range ¦t¦< 1.0 GeV2 where t is the square of the four-momentum exchanged at the proton vertex. dσ/d ¦t¦falls exponentially with a slope parameter of $4.6pm 0.4_{-0.6}^{+0.4} {⤪ GeV}^{-2}$. The measured decay angular distributions are consistent with s-channel helicity conservation.