Abstract

The exclusive electroproduction process ep -> e' p' pi(0) was measured in the range of photon virtualities Q(2) = 0.4-1.0 GeV2 and the invariant mass range of the p pi(0) system of W = 1.1-1.8 GeV. These kinematics are covered in exclusive pi(0) electroproduction off the proton with nearly complete angular coverage in the p pi(0) center-of-mass system and with high statistical accuracy. Nearly 36 000 cross-section points were measured, and the structure functions sigma(T) + epsilon sigma(L), sigma(LT), and sigma(TT), were extracted via fitting the phi(pi 0) dependence of the cross section. A Legendre polynomial expansion analysis demonstrates the sensitivity of our data to high-lying N* and Delta* resonances with M > 1.6 GeV. As part of a broad effort to determine the electrocouplings of the N* and Delta* 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 N pi and pi(+)pi(-)p channels.