Data analysis techniques, differential cross sections, and spin density matrix elements for the reaction γ p → ϕ p

High-statistics measurements of differential cross sections and spin density matrix elements for the reaction γ p → Φp have been made using the CLAS detector at Jefferson Lab. We cover center-of-mass energies (√s) from 1.97 to 2.84 GeV, with an extensive coverage in the Φ production angle. The high statistics of the data sample made it necessary to carefully account for the interplay between the Φ natural lineshape and effects of the detector resolution, that are found to be comparable in magnitude. We study both the charged- (Φ → K⁺K⁻) and neutral- (Φ → K0SK0L) $K\bar{K}$ decay modes of the Φ. Further, for the charged mode, we differentiate between the cases where the final K⁻ track is directly detected or its momentum reconstructed as the total missing momentum in the event. The two charged-mode topologies and the neutral-mode have different resolutions and are calibrated against each other. Extensive usage is made of kinematic fitting to improve the reconstructed Φ mass resolution. Our final results are reported in 10- and mostly 30-MeV-wide √s bins for the charged- and the neutral-mode, respectively. Possible effects from K⁺Λ* channels with p$K\bar{K}$ final-states are discussed. These present results constitute the most precise and extensive Φ photoproduction measurements to date and in conjunction with the ω photoproduction results recently published by CLAS, will greatly improve our understanding of low energy vector meson photoproduction.