Selected vector-meson decay-distributions in reactions of polarized photons with protons

We develop a formalism for studying vector meson (V ) photo-production at the proton (p) with polarized photons, ~γp ! V p, through an analysis of the decay distribution in the channel V ! π0γ. We show that this decay distribution differs noticeably from the distributions of purely hadronic decays, like φ ! K+K−, ω ! π0π+π−. Formulas for the decay distributions are presented which are suitable for data analysis and interpretation.