Pion Photoproduction at O°

Abstract

The special features of forward pion photoproduction at high energies are discussed. It is established that the cross section for single pion production can generally be expected to have a forward dip barring a conspiracy between Regge trajectories. Photo-production of the $A_1$ ($1^{+}$) meson followed by its decay is suggested as an important source of high-energy forward pions.