Neutral pion production from deuterium at the IEGS facility

Neutral pion photoproduction from a liquid deuterium target was measured in the energy region near 300 MeV at the LEGS facility of Brookhaven National Laboratory. The inclusive cross sections from deuterium are in agreement with measurements from Mainz, yet the exclusive cross sections and spin asymmetries for neutral pion production in coincidence with a detected nucleon are much smaller than expected from a quasi-free approximation. This may indicate that substantial final state interactions play a significant role, which will complicate the extraction of the desired amplitudes that would be measured if a free neutron target could be used. (author)