Exclusive π0p electroproduction off protons in the resonance region at photon virtualities 0.4 GeV2≤Q2≤1 GeV2 EXCLUSIVE π0p ELECTROPRODUCTION off ⋯ N. MARKOV et al.

The exclusive electroproduction process ep→e′p′π0 was measured in the range of photon virtualities Q2=0.4-1.0GeV2 and the invariant mass range of the pπ0 system of W=1.1-1.8 GeV. These kinematics are covered in exclusive π0 electroproduction off the proton with nearly complete angular coverage in the pπ0 center-of-mass system and with high statistical accuracy. Nearly 36 000 cross-section points were measured, and the structure functions σT+ϵσL,σLT, and σTT, were extracted via fitting the φπ0 dependence of the cross section. A Legendre polynomial expansion analysis demonstrates the sensitivity of our data to high-lying N∗ and Δ∗ resonances with M>1.6 GeV. As part of a broad effort to determine the electrocouplings of the N∗ and Δ∗ resonances using both single- and double-pion electroproduction, this dataset is crucial for the reliable extraction of the high-lying resonance electrocouplings from the combined isospin analysis of the Nπ and π+π-p channels.