Measurement of the C-12(gamma,pi(0)) reaction near threshold

The total cross section and pion angular distributions for the reaction C-12(gamma, pi(0)) have been measured within 25 MeV of threshold using tagged photons and a large acceptance pi(0) spectrometer at the Saskatchewan Accelerator Laboratory (SAL). The total cross section is in agreement with earlier measurements from Saclay and Mainz. The elementary P-wave photoproduction amplitude P-3((+)) has been determined from a distorted wave impulse-approximation analysis of the nuclear data and compares favorably with the corresponding free-nucleon amplitude in the threshold region. The incoherent contribution from the 4.43 MeV (2(+)) state has been deduced from the pion angular distributions and is in agreement with previous experimental estimates.