Photoproduction of Meson and Baryon Resonances at Energies up to 5.8 GeV

In a study of photoproduction at photon energies between 0.3 and 5.8 GeV in a hydrogen bubble chamber, approximately 31 000 events with three, five, or seven outgoing charged particles were analyzed. This paper gives a survey of the experimental procedure and of resonance production in quasi-two-body reactions. The cross sections for the processes γp→pπ⁺π^-, γp→pπ⁺π⁺π^-π^-, ${γ}p{→}p{{π}}⁺{{π}}⁺{{π}}⁺{{π}}^{{-}}{{π}}^{{-}}{{π}}^{{-}}$, ${γ}p{→}pV (V={{ρ}}⁰,{ω},{φ})$, ${γ}p{→}p{η}$, ${γ}p{→}p{X}⁰$, ${γ}p{→}{{Δ}}⁺⁺{{π}}^{{-}}$, and ${γ}p{→}{{Δ}}⁰{{π}}⁺$ have been measured as a function of the photon energy. For reactions ${γ}p{→}p{{ρ}}⁰$, ${γ}p{→}p{ω}$, and ${γ}p{→}{{Δ}}⁺⁺{{π}}^{{-}}$, the differential cross sections and density matrix elements are given for various intervals of the photon energy. The photoproduction of vector mesons and ${Δ}$ isobars is discussed in terms of several models.