Vector Meson Production at HERA

Abstract

We show that the lowest-order QCD calculation in a simple model of elastic vector-meson production does reproduce correctly the ratios of cross sections for rho, phi and J/psi, both in photoproduction and in high-Q2 quasi-elastic scattering. The dependence of the slopes on the mass of the vector meson is reproduced as well. We examine the lower-energy data, and find that the energy dependence of the cross section does not depend on Q2, but may depend on the vector-meson mass.

Comments: 12 pages, Latex, 6 figures. Shortened version of the previous paper, which also includes a clearer criticism of the work by Martin, Ryskin and Teubner, hep-ph/9609448