Backward Rho Production in<mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><mml:mrow><mml:msup><mml:mrow><mml:mi>π</mml:mi></mml:mrow><mml:mrow><mml:mo>−</mml:mo></mml:mrow></mml:msup></mml:mrow><mml:mi>p</mml:mi></mml:math>Reactions at 2.3 BeV/<i>c</i>

In a sample of 8300 events of the type ${\ensuremath{\pi}}^{\ensuremath{-}}p\ensuremath{\rightarrow}{\ensuremath{\pi}}^{\ensuremath{-}}{\ensuremath{\pi}}^{+}n$ and 6800 events of the type ${\ensuremath{\pi}}^{\ensuremath{-}}p\ensuremath{\rightarrow}{\ensuremath{\pi}}^{\ensuremath{-}}{\ensuremath{\pi}}^{0}p$ obtained with 2.3-BeV/c incident ${\ensuremath{\pi}}^{\ensuremath{-}}$, substantial backward ${\ensuremath{\rho}}^{0}$ production is seen. The decay angular distribution of these backward ${\ensuremath{\rho}}^{0}$ events was found to be anisotropic. The $u$ distribution for the backward ${\ensuremath{\rho}}^{0}'\mathrm{s}$ is compared with the theoretical predictions of the strong-cut Reggeized absorption model. A small amount of backward ${\ensuremath{\rho}}^{\ensuremath{-}}$ production is also seen.