Elastic photoproduction of J/ψ and ϒ mesons at HERA

Cross sections for elastic photoproduction of J/ψ and ϒ mesons are presented. For J/ψ mesons the dependence on the photon-proton centre-of-mass energy Wγp is analysed in an extended range with respect to previous measurements of 26≤Wγp≤285GeV. The measured energy dependence is parameterized as σγp∝Wγpδ with δ=0.83±0.07. The differential cross section dσ/dt for J/ψ mesons is derived, its dependence on Wγp and on t is analysed and the effective trajectory (in terms of Regge theory) is determined to be α(t)=(1.27±0.05)+(0.08±0.17)·t/GeV2. Models based on perturbative QCD and on pomeron exchange are compared to the data.