Speaker
Description
The strong interaction between quarks and gluons, from which hadrons are built, is theoretically described by quantum chromodynamics. However, the role of gluons and how they affect the properties of hadrons is still unresolved. The discovery of several unexpected and possibly exotic hadrons in recent years highlights the need for precise spectroscopic measurements to understand the nature of the strong interaction. The status of the search for exotic contributions in photoproduction data from the GlueX experiment at Jefferson Lab in $\eta^{(\prime)} \pi$ systems will be presented. Specifically, results on the production of the $a_2(1320)$ meson in these key channels, which are first steps in the search for exotic quantum-number hybrid mesons, will be discussed. The application of a partial wave analysis exploiting the polarization of the photon beam available to the GlueX experiment, and implications for the measures needed to identify the hybrid will be discussed.
