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$ϕ$-meson photoproduction on Hydrogen in the neutral decay mode

We report the first measurement of the photoproduction cross section of the $ϕ$ meson in its neutral decay mode in the reaction $γp \to pϕ(K_SK_L)$. The experiment was performed with a tagged photon beam of energy $1.6 \le E_γ\le 3.6$ GeV incident on a liquid hydrogen target of the CLAS spectrometer at the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility. The $p ϕ$ final state is identified via reconstruction of $K_S$ in the invariant mass of two oppositely charged pions and by requiring the missing particle in the reaction $γp \to p K_S X$ to be $K_L$. The presented results significantly enlarge the existing data on $ϕ$-photoproduction. These data, combined with the data from the charged decay mode, will help to constrain different mechanisms of $ϕ$ photoproduction.