Study of the baryon resonances structure via eta photoproduction

Within a quark model the process gamma p --> eta p, for E-gamma(lab) < 1.2 GeV, is investigated. We find that the recent data from GRAAL on the polari zed beam asymmetry require significant contributions from the resonances D- 13(1520), F-15(1680), and to a lesser extent from P-13(1720) in addition to those from the dominant S-11(1535) resonance, implied by the Mainz differe ntial cross-section data. The contributions from the resonances S-11(1650), D-13(1700) and D-15(1675) are found consistently small but sensitive to th e polarized target asymmetry measured recently at ELSA. These results are s hown to be consistent with the quark model predictions. (C) 1998 Elsevier S cience B.V.