ELECTROMAGNETIC MESON PRODUCTION IN THE NUCLEON RESONANCE REGION

Abstract

Recent experimental and theoretical advances in investigating electromagnetic meson production reactions in the nucleon resonance region are reviewed. We give a description of current experimental facilities with electron and photon beams and present a unified derivation of most of the phenomenological approaches being used to extract the resonance parameters from the data. The analyses of π and η production data and the resulting transition form factors for the Δ(1232)P33, N (1535)S11, N (1440)P11, and N (1520)D13 resonances are discussed in detail. The status of our understanding of the reactions with production of two pions, kaons, and vector mesons is also reviewed.