Differential cross section measurements for γn→π-p above the first nucleon resonance region

The quasifree γ d → π − p ( p ) differential cross section has been measured with CLAS at photon beam energies E γ from 0.445 to 2.510 GeV (corresponding to W from 1.311 to 2.366 GeV) for pion center-of-mass angles cos θ c . m . π from − 0.72 to 0.92. A correction for final state interactions has been applied to these data to extract the γ n → π − p differential cross sections. These cross sections are quoted in 8428 ( E γ , cos θ c . m . π ) bins, a factor of nearly 3 increase in the world statistics for this channel in this kinematic range. These new data help to constrain coupled-channel analysis fits used to disentangle the spectrum of N ∗ resonances and extract their properties. Selected photon decay amplitudes N ∗ → γ n at the resonance poles are determined for the first time and are reported here.