omega - pi gamma^* transition form factor in proton-proton collisions

Dalitz decays of omega and rho mesons, omega to pi⁰gamma^* topi⁰ e⁺e^- and rho⁰ to pi⁰gamma^* to pi⁰ e⁺e^-, produced in pp collisions are calculated within a covariant effective meson-nucleon theory.
We argue that the omega transition form factor F_{omega to pi⁰gamma^*} is experimentally accessible in a fairly model independent way in the reaction pp to pp pi⁰ e⁺ e^- for invariant masses of the pi⁰ e⁺ e^- subsystem near the omega pole.
Numerical results are presented for the intermediate energy kinematics of envisaged HADES experiments.