The GlueX experiment is a new experimental facility at Jefferson Lab in Newport News, VA. The experiment aims to map out the spectrum of hybrid mesons in the light quark sector. Measurements of the spin-density matrix elements in ω photoproduction are performed with a linear polarized photon beam on an unpolarized proton target, and presented in bins of Mandelstam t for beam energies of 8.4 − 9.0 GeV. The spin-density matrix elements are exclusively measured through two decays of the ω meson: ω → π + π − π 0 and ω → π 0 γ . A description of the experimental apparatus is presented. Several methods used in the calibration of the charged particle tracking system are described. These measurements greatly improve the world statistics in this energy range. These are the first results measured through the ω → π 0 γ decay at this energy. Results are generally consistent with a theoretical model based on diffractive production with Pomeron and pseudoscalar exchange in the t-channel.i
AcknowledgmentsAfter so many years of effort towards the culmination of this work, it is hard to come up with an exhaustive list of people who have helped me along the way. I feel like I've missed someone, so if that is you, I'm sorry, and thanks for your help. I'd like to thank my advisor, Curtis Meyer, for his useful scientific advice and for showing me the best way to wear a bowtie. Reinhard Schumacher has also provided many valuable suggestions in times I have been short on ideas. I'd also like to thank Gregg Franklin and Brian Quinn for their valuable input in preparing the final version of this document. Thanks to Marcus Hohlmann for giving me a chance to prove myself in the field. Thanks to Kim Skinner and Bob Jester for teaching me years ago that science can be fun. I've learned that sometimes that is true.The GlueX collaboration has been an excellent group of scientists to work with, and I will always remember the excitement of participating in the commissioning of the experiment (with the exception of labeling the BCAL LEMO cables). I'd first like to apologize to Sean Dobbs, Paul Mattione, and Justin Stevens for my oft rambling emails about one problem or another, but thanks for your friendship and advice at odd hours. You and the other postdocs all helped make my graduate years at CMU a little easier by taking on a lot of the hard work. Thanks to Mike Williams for his help in preparing the code that implements the theoretical model presented in this thesis and for setting the bar too high with his previous analysis on the subject. I'd like to thank Dave Mack for always providing extensive feedback on my analyses, and his general enthusiasm and insightful intuition into arcane matters. I'd like to thank Beni Zihlmann for indirectly teaching me some colorful Swiss-German phrases among other more useful things. I'd like to thank Lubomir Pentchev for his help calibrating the FDC, and for always making me explain myself in more detail. Maybe another person that deserves more apologies than thanks is Simon Taylor, for helping me understa...