Cross sections and angular distributions for 12C(γ,π0)☆

Abstract Absolute cross sections and angular distributions for the production of neutral pions from 12 C by monochromatic photons have been measured near threshold. The contribution of incoherent pion production is found to be less than 10% for E γ ⩽168 MeV. Both the absolute cross section and the angular distribution indicate that a quantitative analysis requires final-state interactions of the produced π 0 with the surrounding nucleons to be taken into account.