A detailed next-to-leading order QCD analysis of deeply virtual Compton scattering observables

We present a detailed next-to-leading order (NLO) leading twist QCD analysis of deeply virtual Compton scattering (DVCS) observables, for several different input scenarios, in the scheme. We discuss the size of the NLO effects and the behavior of the observables in skewedness , momentum transfer,t, and photon virtuality, . We present results on the amplitude level for unpolarized and longitudinally polarized lepton probes, and unpolarized and longitudinally polarized proton targets. We make predictions for various asymmetries and for the DVCS cross section and compare with the available data. Received: 30 November 2001 / Revised version: 12 February 2002 / Published online: 15 March 2002     

Recent HERMES Results on DVCS from Proton and Nuclear Targets

Spin structure is one of the fundamental subjects in the study of nucleon structure.Recently it is found that Generalized Parton Distributions(GPDs) are related to the total angular momentum carried by partons,which offers a possible solution to the spin puzzle in the first time.We get access to certain GPDs by looking at the azimuthal angle asymmetries attributed to the interference between Deeply Virtual Compton Scattering (DVCS) and Bethe-Heilter processes in HERMES experiment.By measuring the asymmetry with respect to transverse target polarization from proton target,a model-dependent constraint on J_u vs J_d is obtained.Another worldwide unique channel is nuclear DVCS.The preliminary results on asymmetries with respect to beam spin and beam charge are reported.     

Deep electroproduction of photons and mesons on the deuteron

We study deeply virtual Compton scattering and deep exclusive meson electroproduction on a deuteron target. We model the generalized quark distributions in the deuteron by using the impulse approximation for the lowest Fock-space state on the light cone. We study the properties of the resulting GPDs, and verify that sum rules violations are quite small in the impulse approximation. Numerical predictions are given for the unpolarized cross-sections and polarization asymmetries for the kinematical regimes relevant for JLab experiments and for HERMES at HERA. We conclude that the signal of coherent scattering on the deuteron is comparable to the one on the proton at least for low momentum transfer, providing support to the feasibility of the experiments. The short-distance structure of the deuteron may thus be scrutinized in the near future.Received: 21 July 2003, Revised: 9 September 2003, Published online: 5 February 2004PACS: 24.85. + p Quarks, gluons, and QCD in nuclei and nuclear processes - 12.38.Bx Perturbative calculations - 25.30.-c Lepton-induced reactions     

COMPASS-II

On December 1st 2010 the proposal of the COMPASS-II Experiment [1] has been approved by the CERN Research Board. After almost ten years of important results achieved by the COMPASS Collaboration in both nucleon spin physics, with the use of muon beam, and hadron spectroscopy, using hadron beams, this second phase offers now a unique chance to address in the very near future newly opened QCD-related challenges, at very moderate upgrade cost, thanks to the versatility of the COMPASS apparatus [2]. This implies mainly study of chiral perturbation theory (ChPT), by measuring the pion polarizability through Primakoff reaction; generalized parton distributions (GPDs), by measuring exclusive deeply virtual compton scattering (DVCS) and hard exclusive meson production (DVMP); transverse momentum dependent parton distributions (TMDs) in single-polarised pion-induced Drell-Yan muon production and in SIDIS on a liquid hydrogen target (in parallel to DVCS). An overview of the COMPASS-II proposal is presented here, with a main focus on the new upcoming investigation of the nucleon structure via the Drell-Yan and DVCS processes.     

COMPASS results on collins and sivers asymmetries for charged hadrons

The study of transverse spin and transverse momentum effects is an important part of the scientific program of COMPASS, a fixed target experiment at the CERN SPS taking data since 2002. The studies are carried on by measuring the hadrons produced in deep inelastic scattering (DIS) of 160 GeV/c muons off different targets. Among the possible asymmetries in the hadron azimuthal distributions, particularly interesting are the Collins and Sivers asymmetries which the COMPASS Collaboration has measured using transversely polarised deuteron and proton targets. Here new results for charged pions and kaons obtained from the 2010 run with a transversely polarised proton target are presented for the first time.     

Non-linear QCD dynamics and exclusive production in ep collisions

The exclusive processes in electron–proton (ep) interactions are an important tool to investigate the QCD dynamics at high energies as they are in general driven by the gluon content of proton which is strongly subject to parton saturation effects. In this paper we compute the cross sections for the exclusive vector meson production as well as the deeply virtual Compton scattering (DVCS) relying on the color dipole approach and considering the numerical solution of the Balitsky–Kovchegov equation including running coupling corrections. We show that the small-x evolution given by this evolution equation is able to describe the DESY-HERA data and is relevant for the physics of the exclusive observables in future electron–proton colliders and in photoproduction processes to be measured in coherent interactions at the LHC.     

Latest HERMES results on transverse spin effects in hadron structure and formation⋆

Transverse target single-spin asymmetries in semi-inclusive deep inelastic scattering allow to study the so-called Collins and Sivers mechanisms. The first one connects the poorly known fundamental transversity distribution function, describing the transverse spin-polarization of quarks in a transversely polarized proton, to the Collins fragmentation function, describing spin-orbit correlations in the hadron formation process. The second one is sensitive to the Sivers function, which correlates the intrinsic transverse momentum of quarks with the proton’s spin orientation and is related to the orbital angular momentum of quarks. Preliminary results on azimuthal single target-spin asymmetries in semi-inclusive electro-production of pions and kaons at the HERMES experiment are presented. The full data set collected with a transversely polarized hydrogen target was analyzed providing the HERMES most precise results on the Collins and Sivers azimuthal moments. Original article based on material presented at HADRON 2007.     

Measurement of transverse single-spin asymmetries for Dijet production in proton-proton collisions at sqrt[s]=200 GeV

We report the first measurement of the opening angle distribution between pairs of jets produced in high-energy collisions of transversely polarized protons. The measurement probes (Sivers) correlations between the transverse spin orientation of a proton and the transverse momentum directions of its partons. With both beams polarized, the wide pseudorapidity (-1< or = eta < or = +2) coverage for jets permits separation of Sivers functions for the valence and sea regions. The resulting asymmetries are all consistent with zero and considerably smaller than Sivers effects observed in semi-inclusive deep inelastic scattering. We discuss theoretical attempts to reconcile the new results with the sizable transverse spin effects seen in semi-inclusive deep inelastic scattering and forward hadron production in pp collisions.     

Semi-inclusive deep inelastic lepton scattering in a pion cloud model

In this note we explore the consequences of the pion cloud model for semi-inclusive deep inelastic lepton scattering. We argue that by scattering on a few-nucleon target, the detection of the recoiling target would provide a valuable test of the meson cloud model. We estimate the semi-inclusive cross section for deep inelastic lepton scattering on a³He target, as function of Bjorkenx and target recoil momentum.     

Generalized parton distributions

We discuss how generalized parton distributions (GPDs) enter in a variety of hard exclusive processes such as deeply virtual Compton scattering (DVCS) and hard meson electroproduction reactions on the nucleon. We show some key observables which are sensitive to the various hadron structure aspects of the GPDs, and discuss their experimental status.Received: 30 September 2002, Published online: 22 October 2003PACS: 13.60.Fz Elastic and Compton scattering - 13.60.Le Meson production - 12.38.Bx Perturbative calculations     

Measurement of single- and double-spin asymmetries in deep inelastic pion electroproduction with a longitudinally polarized target

We report the first measurement of the transverse momentum dependence of double-spin asymmetries in semi-inclusive production of pions in deep-inelastic scattering off the longitudinally polarized proton. Data have been obtained using a polarized electron beam of 5.7 GeV with the CLAS detector at the Jefferson Lab (JLab). Modulations of single spin asymmetries over the azimuthal angle between lepton scattering and hadron production planes ? have been measured over a wide kinematic range in Bjorken x and virtual photon squared four-momentum Q2. A significant nonzero sin2? single spin asymmetry was observed for the first time indicating strong spin-orbit correlations for transversely polarized quarks in the longitudinally polarized proton.     

Generalized parton distributions from meson leptoproduction

Generalized parton distributions (GPDs) extracted from exclusive meson leptoproduction within the handbag approach are briefly reviewed. Only the GPD E is discussed in some detail. Applications of these GPDs to virtual Compton scattering (DVCS) and to Ji’s sum rule are also presented.     

Study of Ratio of Proton Momentum Distributions with a Chiral Quark Model

The ratio between the anomalous magnetic moments of proton and neutron has recently been suggested to be connected to the ratio of proton momentum fractions carried by the valence quarks inside it. This moment fraction ratio is respectively evaluated by using constituent quark model and chiral quark model in order to check meson cloud effect. Our results show that the meson cloud effect is remarkable to the ratio of the proton momentum fractions, and therefore, this ratio is a sensitive test for the meson cloud effect as well as for the SU(6) symmetry breaking effect.     

Unitarity constraints and role of geometrical effects in deep-inelastic scattering and vector meson electroproduction

Deep-inelastic scattering at low x and elastic vector meson electroproduction are analyzed on the basis of the s-channel unitarity extended to off-shell particle scattering. It appeared that the role of unitarity is important, but contrary to the case of on-shell scattering it does not rule out a power-like behavior of the total cross sections. We discuss the behavior of the total cross section of virtual photon–proton scattering in the geometrical approach and obtain the result that the exponent of the power-like energy dependence of is related to the constituent quark interaction radius. The mass effects and energy dependence of vector meson electroproduction are discussed along with the angular distributions at large momentum transfers in these processes. Received: 10 September 2001 / Published online: 7 December 2001     

Extracting TMDs from CLAS12 data

We present studies of double longitudinal spin asymmetries in semi-inclusive deep inelastic scattering using a new dedicated Monte Carlo generator, which includes quark intrinsic transverse momentum within the generalized parton model based on the fully differential cross section for the process. Additionally we employ Bessel-weighting to the MC events to extract transverse momentum dependent parton distribution functions and also discuss possible uncertainties due to kinematic correlation effects.     

Final-state interactions and single-spin asymmetries in semi-inclusive deep inelastic scattering

Recent measurements from the HERMES and SMC Collaborations show a remarkably large azimuthal single-spin asymmetries A_UL and A_UT of the proton in semi-inclusive pion leptoproduction γ^*(q)p→πX. We show that final-state interactions from gluon exchange between the outgoing quark and the target spectator system lead to single-spin asymmetries in deep inelastic lepton–proton scattering at leading twist in perturbative QCD; i.e., the rescattering corrections are not power-law suppressed at large photon virtuality Q² at fixed x_bj. The existence of such single-spin asymmetries requires a phase difference between two amplitudes coupling the proton target with J^z_p=±1/2 to the same final-state, the same amplitudes which are necessary to produce a nonzero proton anomalous magnetic moment. We show that the exchange of gauge particles between the outgoing quark and the proton spectators produces a Coulomb-like complex phase which depends on the angular momentum L^z of the proton's constituents and is thus distinct for different proton spin amplitudes. The single-spin asymmetry which arises from such final-state interactions does not factorize into a product of distribution function and fragmentation function, and it is not related to the transversity distribution δq(x,Q) which correlates transversely polarized quarks with the spin of the transversely polarized target nucleon.     

Double-spin asymmetries in the cross section of \rho^0 and \phi production at intermediate energies

Double-spin asymmetries in the cross section of electroproduction of and mesons on the proton and deuteron are measured at the HERMES experiment. The photoabsorption asymmetry in exclusive electroproduction on the proton exhibits a positive tendency. This is consistent with theoretical predictions that the exchange of an object with unnatural parity contributes to exclusive electroproduction by transverse photons. The photoabsorption asymmetry on the deuteron is found to be consistent with zero. Double-spin asymmetries in and meson electroproduction by quasi-real photons were also found to be consistent with zero; the asymmetry in the case of the meson is compatible with a theoretical prediction which involves knockout from the nucleon. Received: 11 February 2003 / Published online: 11 June 2003     

Single spin asymmetries in high energy reactions and nonperturbative QCD effects

We discuss some experimental and theoretical results on single spin asymmetries (SSA) in high energy lepton-hadron and hadron-hadron reactions. In particular, recent results on meson SSA obtained by HERMES are considered in detail. We also discuss the SSA results obtained recently by COMPASS, as well as those from BRAHMS, PHENIX and STAR. Special attention is paid to a possible nonperturbative QCD mechanism that might be responsible for the observed meson SSA. This mechanism originates from the spin-flip quark-gluon chromomagnetic interaction induced by the complex topological structure of the QCD vacuum. We argue that in semi-inclusive deep-inelastic scattering a large SSA is expected not only for mesons but also for baryons due to strong nonperturbative final state interactions between ud-diquark and u-quark in the fragmenting proton.     

Diffractive heavy vector meson production from the BFKL equation

Diffractive heavy vector meson photoproduction accompanied by proton dissociation is studied for arbitrary momentum transfer. The process is described by the non-forward BFKL equation, for which a complete analytical solution is found, giving the scattering amplitude. The impact of non-leading corrections to the BFKL equation is also analysed. Results are compared to the HERA data on production. Received: 2 July 2002 / Revised version: 29 August 2002 / Published online: 18 October 2002     

Generalized Parton Distributions of 3He and the Neutron Orbital Structure

The two leading twist, quark helicity conserving generalized parton distributions (GPDs) of ³He, accessible, for example, in coherent deeply virtual Compton scattering (DVCS), are calculated in impulse approximation (IA). Their sum, at low momentum transfer, is found to be largely dominated by the neutron contribution, so that ³He is very promising for the extraction of the neutron information. Anyway, such an extraction could be not trivial. A technique, able to take into account the nuclear effects included in the IA analysis in the extraction procedure, even at moderate values of the momentum transfer, is proposed. Coherent DVCS arises therefore as a crucial experiment to access, for the first time, the neutron GPDs and the orbital angular momentum of the partons in the neutron.