First observation of the reaction gammagamma--> pi 2--> pi 0 pi 0 pi 0

The Crystal Ball detector has been used at the DORIS II storage ring at DESY to study the reactionγγ→π0π0π0 in theπ0π0π0 invariant mass range from 850 MeV/c2 to 2600 MeV/c2. An enhancement around 1750 MeV/c2 is attributed to theπ2(1670) resonance. The observedπ0π0 invariant mass distribution and theπ0 angular distributions are consistent with those expected for the decay chainπ2→π0f2(1270)→π0π0π0. From our measurements we find the following resonance parameters: two photon partial width\(\Gamma _{\pi _2 }^{\gamma \gamma }= (1.41 \pm 0.23 \pm 0.28)keV\), massM(π2)=(1742±31±49)MeV/c2. and total width\(\Gamma _{\pi _2 }^{tot}= (236 \pm 49 \pm 36)MeV\).