Diffractive photo- and leptoproduction of vector mesons $\rho$, $\rho'$ and $\rho''$

We calculate diffractive photo- and leptoproduction of ρ -, ρ ′ - and ρ ′′ -mesons. The incoming photon dissociates into a q ¯ q -dipole which scatters on the nucleon and transforms into a vector meson state. The scattering amplitude is calculated in non-perturbative QCD with the model of the stochastic vacuum. Assuming that the physical ρ ′ - and ρ ′′ -mesons are mixed states of an active 2S-excitation and some residual hybrid state which cannot be produced diffractively in lowest order QCD, we obtain good agreement with the data, especially the markedly different spectrum in the π + π − -invariant mass for photoproduction and e + e − -annihilation.