Mass distribution for coherent rho meson produced in the proton induced nuclear reactions

The mass distribution spectra have been calculated for the rho meson produced coherently in the (p,p′) reaction on nuclei. The distortion due to elastically scattered protons has been approximated by the attenuation factor for them. The optical potential for the rho meson is constructed by folding linearly the energy dependent ρ nucleon scattering amplitude with the nuclear density distribution. The ρ nucleon scattering amplitude is taken from calculations, which are constrained by the elementary ρ production data. The calculated cross sections are compared at various beam energies. The dependence of the cross section on the ejectile p′ emission angle as well as on the target nucleus is also illustrated. Beside these, the sensitivity of the cross section to the ρ meson optical potential is investigated.