Neutral pion photoproduction on tensor-polarized deuterium on the VEPP-3 storage ring

An experiment to measure component T 20 of the tensor analyzing power for the coherent photo-production of neutral pions on polarized deuterons is described. The measurements cover the photon energies in the ranges E γ = 200–500 MeV and E γ = 300–600 MeV, and the emission angles of neutral pions in the ranges = \(\theta _{\pi ^0 }^{c.m.} \) = 100°–140° and = \(\theta _{\pi ^0 }^{c.m.} \) = 60°–65°, respectively. The experiment uses a hyperfine internal gas polarized target. Detectors of neutral pions and deuterons register these particles in coincidence. The target’s degree of polarization and luminosity is measured by detecting elastic electron-deuteron scattering at low momentum transfer. A selection of the preliminary results is presented.