We investigate $ϕ$-meson electroproduction off the proton target, i.e., $γ^* p \to ϕp$, by employing a tree-level effective Lagrangian approach in the kinematical ranges of $Q^2$ = (0$-$4) $\mathrm{GeV}^2$, $W$ = (2$-$5) GeV, and $|t| \leq 2\,\mathrm{GeV}^2$. In addition to the universally accepted Pomeron exchange, we consider various meson exchanges in the $t$ channel with the Regge method. Direct $ϕ$-meson radiations in the $s$- and $u$-channels are also taken into account. We find that the $Q^2$ dependence of the transverse ($σ_{\mathrm{T}}$) and longitudinal ($σ_{\mathrm{L}}$) cross sections are governed by Pomeron and $(a_0,f_0)$ scalar meson exchanges, respectively. Meanwhile, the contributions of $(π,η)$ pseudoscalar- and $f_1(1285)$ axial-vector-meson exchanges are much more suppressed. The results of the interference cross sections ($σ_{\mathrm{LT}}, σ_{\mathrm{LT}}$) and the spin-density matrix elements indicate that $s$-channel helicity conservation holds at $Q^2$ = (1$-$4) $\mathrm{GeV}^2$. The result of the parity asymmetry yield $P \simeq 0.95$ at $W$ = 2.5 GeV, meaning that natural-parity exchange dominates the reaction process. Our numerical results are in fair agreement with the experimental data and thus the use of our effective Reggeized model is justified over the considered kinematical ranges of $Q^2$, $W$, and $t$.
$γ_{v}NN^*$ transition helicity amplitudes (electrocouplings) of several prominent excited proton states are determined for the first time in independent analyses of $π^+n$, $π^0p$, and $π^+π^-p$ electroproduction off protons. Analysis of $π^+π^-p$ electroproduction has extended considerably information on electrocouplings of high lying N* states, which decay preferentially to the $Nππ$ final states.
Electrocouplings of excited proton states with masses less than 1.8 GeV were determined for the first time from the CLAS data on $π^+π^-p$ electroproduction at photon virtualities $Q^2$ $<$ 1.5 GeV$^2$. Electrocouplings were obtained from a combined fit of all available observables within the framework of a phenomenological reaction model.
We discuss recent HERA results on vector--meson electroproduction gamma*p -> Vp and demonstrate that universality of the initial and final state interactions responsible for the transition between the on- and off-mass shell states allows to explain energy independence of the ratio of exclusive rho electroproduction cross section to the total cross section. We also predict explicit mass dependence of this ratio for other vector mesons.
We discuss the relevance of studying single transverse-spin asymmetry in hard-exclusive meson electroproduction in the backward region. Such an asymmetry could help us discriminate between contributions from a soft baryon exchange in the u-channel and a hard parton-induced scattering.
We consider backward vector meson exclusive electroproduction off nucleons in the framework of collinear QCD factorization. Nucleon to vector meson transition distribution amplitudes arise as building blocks for the corresponding factorized amplitudes. In the near-backward kinematics, the suggested factorization mechanism results in the dominance of the transverse cross section of vector meson production ($σ_T \gg σ_L$) and in the characteristic $1/Q^8$-scaling behavior of the cross section. We evaluate nucleon to vector meson TDAs in the cross-channel nucleon exchange model and present estima…
We show that nuclear sigma, omega, and pi mesons can contribute coherently to enhance the electroproduction cross section on nuclei for longitudinal virtual photons at low Q^2 while depleting the cross section for transverse photons. We are able to describe recent HERMES inelastic lepton-nucleus scattering data at low Q^2 and small x using photon-meson and meson-nucleus couplings which are consistent with (but not determined by) existing constraints from meson decay widths, nuclear structure, deep inelastic scattering, and lepton pair production data. We find that while nuclear-coherent pion c…
We analyze light meson electroproduction within the handbag model. We study cross sections and spin asymmetries for various mesons. The essential role of the transversity $\tilde H_T$ and $\tilde E_T$ GPDs in electroproduction of pseudoscalar mesons is found. Our results are in good agrement with experiment.
We discuss the recent data of exclusive $π^0$ (and $π^+$) electroproduction on the proton obtained by the CLAS collaboration at Jefferson Lab. It is observed that the cross sections, which have been decomposed in $σ_T +εσ_L$, $σ_{TT}$ and $σ_{LT}$ structure functions, are dominated by transverse amplitude contributions. The data can be interpreted in the Generalized Parton Distribution formalism provided that one includes helicity-flip transversity GPDs.
We show that AdS/QCD generates predictions for the rate of diffractive rho meson electroproduction that are in agreement with data collected at the HERA electron-proton collider.
We evaluate the leading order amplitude for the deep exclusive electroproduction of an exotic hybrid meson in the Bjorken regime. We show that, contrary to naive expectation, this amplitude factorizes at the twist 2 level and thus scales like usual meson electroproduction when the virtual photon and the hybrid meson are longitidinally polarized. Exotic hybrid mesons may thus be studied in electroproduction experiments at JLAB, HERA (HERMES) or CERN (COMPASS).
Vector meson electroproduction is analyzed within the two-gluon (2G) model and the generalized parton distribution (GPD) approach at small $x$-Bjorken. We demonstrate that 2G and GPD models are not completely equivalent. At the same time, both models are in reasonable agreement with available experimental data on light vector meson electroproduction.
Transition helicity amplitudes $γ_{v}NN^*$ (electrocouplings) were determined for prominent excited proton states with masses below 1.8 GeV in independent analyses of major meson electroproduction channels: $π^{+}n$, $π^0p$ and $π^+π^-p$. Consistent results on resonance electrocouplings obtained from analyses of these exclusive reactions with different non-resonant contributions demonstrate reliable extraction of these fundamental quantities for states that have significant decays for either $Nπ$ or $Nππ$ channels. Preliminary results on electrocouplings of $N^*$ states with masses above 1.6 G…
By means of an explicit one-loop calculation, it is shown that the leading twist contribution to the exclusive electroproduction of transversely polarized vector mesons from the nucleon vanishes. This confirms the all-orders proof by Collins and Diehl.
The transition γ_{v}pN^* amplitudes (electrocouplings) for prominent excited nucleon states obtained in a wide area of photon virtualities offer valuable information for the exploration of the N^* structure at different distances and allow us to access the complex dynamics of non-perturbative strong interaction. The current status in the studies of γ_{v}pN^* electrocouplings from the data on exclusive meson electroproduction off protons measured with the CLAS detector at Jefferson Lab is presented. The impact of these results on exploration of the N^* structure is discussed.
A systematic multiple scattering formalism for vector meson electroproduction from nuclei is developed, with emphasis on the formation, propagation and hadronization scales for quark-gluon fluctuations of the virtual high-energy photon. The theory is compared to HERMES measurements of rho electroproduction on 14N. The nuclear transparency as a function of the vector meson propagation length is well reproduced.
It is reported on a global analysis of hard vector-meson electroproduction which is based on the handbag factorization. The generalized parton distributions are constructed from their forward limits with the help of double distributions and the partonic subprocesses are calculated within the modified perturbative approach.
A Pomeron-exchange model of exclusive electroproduction of $ρ$-mesons is examined using a dressed-quark propagator. It is shown that by representing the photon-$ρ$-meson-Pomeron coupling by a nonperturbative, confined-quark loop, one obtains predictions for $ρ$-meson electroproduction that are in good agreement with experiment.
A nonperturbative calculation of elastic electroproduction of the J/psi meson is presented and compared to the experimental data. Our model describes well the observed dependences of the cross sections on the photon virtuality Q2 and on the energy, and the measured ratio R of longitudinal to transverse cross sections.
We present the first evaluation of the color dipole diffraction slope from the data on diffractive photo- and electroproduction of vector mesons. The energy and dipole size dependence of the found dipole diffraction slope are consistent with the color dipole gBFKL dynamics.
We analyze light meson electroproduction in the intermediate energy range where the quark contributions are essential. Our calculations are carried out on the basis of the handbag approach. We study cross sections and spin asymmetries for various vector and pseudoscalar mesons. Our results are in good agrement with COMPASS and HERMES experiments.
We present the first evaluation of color dipole cross section from experimental data on diffractive photo- and electroproduction of vector mesons. The dipole-size and energy dependence of the found dipole cross section is consistent with expectations from the BFKL dynamics.
We discuss the possibility of measuring generalized parton distributions in exclusive electroproduction of mesons off the nucleon and estimate the uncertainty from perturbatively induced higher-twist corrections. We find that, while the magnitude of the cross section changes significantly taking into account twist-four contributions modeled via renormalons, the transverse spin asymmetry is weakly sensitive to them and displays the precocious scaling.
In these proceedings we present preliminary $π^{+}π^{-}$ electroproduction cross sections off protons in the kinematical area of 1.4 GeV $< W <$ 1.8 GeV and 0.4 GeV$^{2}$ $< Q^{2} < 1.1$ GeV$^{2}$. Our results extend the kinematical coverage for this exclusive channel with respect to previous measurements. Furthermore, the $π^{+}π^{-}$ electroproduction cross sections were obtained for $Q^2$-bins of much smaller size. The future analysis of this data within the framework of the JLAB-MSU reaction model (JM) will considerably improve our knowledge on the $Q^2$ evolution of the transition $γ_{v}N…
The electromagnetic radiative correction to the cross section of the vector meson electroproduction is calculated. Explicit covariant formulae for the observed cross section are obtained. The dependence of the radiative correction on the experimental resolution and on the inelasticity cut is discussed. FORTRAN code DIFFRAD based on both exact (ultrarelativistic) and approximate sets of the formulae for the radiative correction to the cross section is presented. The detailed numerical analysis for kinematical conditions of the recent experiments on the diffractive electroproduction of vector me…
Relying on the collinear factorization approach, we demonstrate that H1 and ZEUS measurements of exclusive light vector meson and photon electroproduction cross sections can be simultaneously described for photon virtualities of $Q >2 GeV$. Our findings reveal that quark exchanges are important in this small $x_{Bj}$ region and that in leading order approximation the gluonic skewness ratio is much smaller than one.
We study light vector meson electroproduction at small $x$ within the generalized parton distributions (GPDs) model. The modified perturbative approach is used, where the quark transverse degrees of freedom in the vector meson wave function and hard subprocess are considered. Our results on the cross section and spin observables are in good agreement with experiment
Electroproduction of two mesons well separated in rapidity allows the first feasible selective access to chiral-odd transversity GPDs provided one of these mesons is a transversely polarized vector meson rho_T.
We study universality in the electroproduction of vector mesons using a unified nonperturbative approach which has already proved to reproduce extremely well the available experimental data. In this framework, after the extraction of factors that are specific of each vector meson, we arrive at a reduced integrated elastic cross section which is universal. Our calculations suggest a finite infrared behavior for the strong coupling constant.
We calculate the amplitude for the forward electroproduction of two light vector mesons in next-to-leading order BFKL. This amplitude is written as a convolution of two impact factors for the virtual photon to light vector meson transition with the BFKL Green's function. It represents the first next-to-leading order amplitude ever calculated for a collision process between strongly interacting colorless particles.
We show that hard electroproduction is a promising way to study exotic hybrid mesons, in particular through the hybrid decay channel $H \to πη$. We discuss the $πη$ generalized distribution amplitude, calculate the production amplitude and propose a forward-backward asymmetry as a signal for the hybrid meson production.
We analyze electroproduction of light vector meson at small Bjorken $x$ within the generalized parton distribution (GPD) approach. Calculation is based on the modified perturbative approach, where the quark transverse degrees of freedom in the hard subprocess are considered. Our results on the cross section are in fair agreement with experiment from HERMES to HERA energies.
By explicit calculation we demonstrate that, in variance with the classical prediction, the leading twist contribution to the exclusive electroproduction of transversely polarized vector mesons from the nucleon does not vanish beyond the leading order in perturbation theory. This appears to be due to a quantum-mechanical anomaly, in the sense that a classical symmetry of the field theory is broken by quantum corrections.
It is reported on an analysis of electroproduction of light vector mesons at small Bjorken-x within the handbag approach. The partonic subprocesses, meson electroproduction off quarks or gluons, are calculated within the modified perturbative approach in which quark transverse momenta are retained. The soft hadronic matrix elements, generalized parton distributions, are constructed from the CTEQ6 parton distribution functions by means of double distributions. The cross sections for longitudinal polarized virtual photons evaluated from this approach, are in very good agreement with experiment i…
We show that the leading twist contribution to exclusive electroproduction of transversely polarized vector mesons vanishes at all orders in perturbation theory. Therefore one cannot extract information on the quark transversity distribution of the nucleon from this reaction. In turn one has that the produced vector meson is purely longitudinal in the large-Q^2 limit, which provides a new test of the dominance of leading twist at finite Q^2.
We calculate the amplitude for the forward electroproduction of two light vector mesons in next-to-leading order BFKL. This amplitude represents the first next-to-leading order amplitude ever calculated for a collision process between strongly interacting colorless particles.
Including destructively interfering off-diagonal transitions of diffraction-dissociation type, we arrive at a formulation of GVD for exclusive vector-meson production in terms of a continuous spectral representation of dipole form. The transverse cross-section sigma_T for gamma* p -> V p behaves asymptotically as 1/Q^4, while R_V = sigma_L/sigma_T becomes asymptotically constant. Contributions violating s-channel helicity conservation stay at the 10-15% level established in low-energy photoproduction and diffractive hadron--hadron interactions. The data for phi- and rho-meson production for 0 …
It is shown that birefringence effect influences on production of particles with the spin S greater or equal then 1 at collisions of high energy particles.
In the following, we will present a generalization of the proof of factorization for electroproduction of vector mesons to the production of several mesons such as $π^+π^-$ and a proof of factorization for exclusive $γ^* γ$ production of several hadrons for example $p \bar p$ or $π^+π^-$ to all orders in perturbation theory up to power suppressed terms.
The end-point contributions in the quark longitudinal momentum fraction of the virtual photon ($γ^*$) to vector meson ($V$) impact factor to the diffractive electroproduction amplitude can be factorized in terms of a generalized parton evolution of the target parton distribution. The result is used to model the helicity amplitudes $γ^* p \to V p$ in terms of small $x$ generalized parton distributions.
The process of a light neutral vector meson electroproduction is studied in the framework of QCD factorization in which the amplitude factorizes in a convolution of the nonperturbative meson distribution amplitude and the generalized parton densities with the perturbatively calculable hard-scattering amplitudes. We derive a complete set of hard-scattering amplitudes at next-to-leading order for the production of vector mesons, $V=ρ^0, ω, ϕ$.
Data for the differential cross sections for $γ^* p\toρ^0 p$, $γ^* p \to ϕp$ and $γ^* p\to J/ψp$, at all available values of $Q^2$, fit very well to a combination of soft pomeron, hard pomeron and $f_2$ exchange.
An analysis of light vector meson photoproduction at small Bjorken $x \leq 0.2$ is done on the basis of the generalized parton distributions (GPDs). Our results on the cross section and spin density matrix elements (SDME) are in good agreement with experiments.
We estimate the sizeable cross section for deep exclusive electroproduction of an exotic $J^{PC}=1^{-+}$ hybrid meson in the Bjorken regime. The production amplitude scales like the one for usual meson electroproduction, i.e. as $1/Q^2$. This is due to the non-vanishing leading twist distribution amplitude for the hybrid meson, which may be normalized thanks to its relation to the energy momentum tensor and to the QCD sum rules technique. The hard amplitude is considered up to next-to-leading order in $α_{S}$ and we explore the consequences of fixing the renormalization scale ambiguity through…
The processes of exclusive diffractive scattering $p+p\to p+p$, $\bar p+p\to\bar p+p$, and $γ^*+p\to V+p$ at high energies are considered in the framework of a unified Regge-eikonal model with a very simple reggeon structure of the eikonal. It is demonstrated that the pomeron trajectory is universal in all reactions and having intercept about 1.31 which could be exctracted explicitly from the data on the proton structure function $F_2(x,Q^2)$. The predictions for the proton-proton cross-sections at LHC energies are given.
The charge asymmetry induced by interference of amplitudes with $σ$ and $ρ$ mesons decaying to $π^+π^-$ pair created in the fragmentation region of proton, suggest to be a test of degeneration hypothesis of $ρ$ and $σ$ mesons. Some numerical estimations are given.
The process of a light neutral vector meson electroproduction is studied in the framework of QCD factorization in which the amplitude factorizes in a convolution of the nonperturbative meson distribution amplitude and the generalized parton densities with the perturbatively calculable hard-scattering amplitudes. We derive a complete set of hard-scattering amplitudes at next-to-leading order (NLO) for the production of vector mesons, $V=ρ^0, ω, ϕ$.
We use perturbative QCD and parton-hadron duality to estimate the cross sections for the diffractive electroproduction of rhoprime(1-) and rho(3-) resonances which occur in the 1.3-1.8 GeV mass interval. We present the cross sections and the ratios sigma_L/sigma_T as a function of Q^2. We compare the predictions with those for the diffractive electroproduction of rho mesons. We show how such diffractive electroproduction measurements at HERA can probe features of the perturbative QCD 'Pomeron'.
Electroproduction of two vector mesons with a large rapidity gap between them provides the first feasible selective access to chiral-odd GPDs. The scattering amplitude of the process $ γ^* N \to ρ_L^0 ρ_T^+ N'$ may be represented as a convolution of an impact factor describing the $γ^* \to ρ_L^0$ transition and an amplitude describing the $N\to ρ_T^+ N'$ transition, analogously to deeply exclusive electroproduction of a meson, the virtual photon being replaced by a Pomeron. The production of a transversely polarized vector meson $ρ_T^+$ selects a chiral-odd GPD in the proton.
We predict the cross-section for diffractive $ϕ$ electroproduction within the dipole model, using a holographic meson wavefunction for the $ϕ$. For the dipole cross-section, we use the Color Glass Condensate dipole model whose parameters are fitted to the latest 2015 combined HERA data on Deep Inelastic Scattering. Choosing a strange quark mass of $0.14$ GeV, we find good agreement with the available data.
At large virtuality $Q^2$, the coupling to the $ρ$ meson production channels provides us with a natural explanation of the surprisingly large cross section of the $ω$, as well as the $π^+$, meson electroproduction recently measured at backward angles, without destroying the good agreement between the Regge pole model and the data at the real photon point. Together with elastic re-scattering of the outgoing meson it also provides us with a way to explain why the node, that appears at $u\sim -0.15$ GeV$^2$ at the real photon point, disappears at moderate virtuality $Q^2$. Predictions are given f…
We demonstrate that the explicit mass dependence of the exponent in the power--like energy behavior of the vector--meson production cross-section in the processes of virtual photon interactions with a proton gamma^*p --> Vp obtained in the off--shell extension of the approach based on unitarity is in a quantitative agreement with the high--energy HERA experimental data.
One principal motivation for studying exclusive reactions is that they provide a new class of observables, called off-diagonal parton distributions, for the internal structure of the nucleon. The study of exclusive reactions provides a probe of nucleon structure complementary to purely inclusive studies. The simplest, and possibly the most promising, type of experiment is exclusive electroproduction of pseudoscalar mesons at small t, and at large Q2 and W. We show that using the CLAS spectrometer at JLAB and with beam energies between 4 and 6 GeV, we can obtain good quality electroproduction d…
Assuming the proton's light-cone wave function to be dominated by small parton virtualities and small intrinsic transverse momenta, we show that the electroproduction amplitudes at large momentum transfer factorize into parton-level subprocess amplitudes and form factors representing 1/x-moments of skewed parton distributions. On the basis of a wave function overlap model for the form factors we present detailed predictions for the electroproduction cross sections. We also comment on large momentum transfer photoproduction.
We evaluate the single target-spin sin(phi_h) and sin(2ϕ_h) azimuthal asymmetries in the semi-inclusive deep inelastic lepton scattering off longitudinally polarized proton target under HERMES kinematic conditions. A good agreement with the HERMES data can be achieved using only the twist-2 distribution and fragmentation functions.
