Photoproduction of Rho Mesons from Complex Nuclei at 9 BeV

We have measured the absolute differential cross section for photoproduction of neutral rho mesons from complex nuclei at a photon energy of 8.8 BeV. Using a two-parameter optical model, we have deduced a value for the total rho-nucleon cross section of ${30}_{-4\mathrm{}}^{+6\mathrm{}}$ mb. Application of the vector-dominance model results in a value for the rho-photon coupling of $\frac{\gamma _{\rho }^{}{}_{}{}^2}{4\pi }=1.1\mathrm{}\pm 0.2$.