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The BGO-OD experiment at the ELSA accelerator facility uses an energy tagged bremsstrahlung photon beam to investigate the excitation structure of the nucleon. The setup consists of a highly segmented BGO calorimeter surrounding the target, with a particle tracking magnetic spectrometer at forward angles. BGO-OD is ideal for investigating low momentum transfer processes due to the acceptance and high momentum resolution at forward angles. In particular, this enables the investigation of strangeness photoproduction where t-channel exchange mechanisms play an important role. This also allows access to low momentum exchange kinematics where extended, molecular structure may manifest in reaction mechanisms. First key results at low t indicate a cusp-like structure in K + Σ 0 photoproduction at W = 1900 MeV, line shapes and differential cross sections for K + Λ(1405)→ K + Σ 0 π 0 , and a peak structure in K 0 S Σ 0 photoproduction. The peak in the K 0 S Σ 0 channel appears consistent with meson-baryon generated states, where equivalent models have been used to describe the P C pentaquark candidates in the heavy charmed quark sector. 

Since the discovery of the Λ(1405), it remains poorly described by conventional constituent quark models, and it is a candidate for having an “exotic” meson-baryon or “penta-quark” structure, similar to states recently reported in the hidden charm sector. The Λ(1405) can be produced in the reaction γp K + Λ(1405). The pure I=0 decay mode into Σ 0 π 0 is prohibited for the mass-overlapping Σ(1385). Combining a large aperture forward magnetic spectrometer and a central BGO crystal calorimeter, the BGO-OD experiment is ideally suited to measure this decay with the K + in the forward direction. Preliminary results are presented. *Supported by DFG (PN 388979758, 405882627)