A quasi-real photon tagger for CLAS12

The planned energy upgrade of the Jefferson Lab electron beam to 12 GeV will enable a host of different physics topics to be explored. The CLAS detector will undergo a corresponding upgrade to focus the detector systems in the forward angle region. As part of this CLAS12 project, a forward “quasi-real” photon tagger is being developed. This device will measure the scattered electrons with kinematics consistent with low Q2 virtual photons. Such a system will enable a full reconstruction of the photoproduction of many poorly understood hadronic states, for example hybrid meson, cascade and Ω− states. Investigation of these states will provide a much needed examination of our understanding of QCD in the nonpeturbative regime.