Large momentum transfer electroproduction of mesons

The central role of soft nucleon matrix elements in reactions of high energy electrons or real photons with nucleons is emphasized. These soft matrix elements are described in terms of skewed parton distributions. Their connections to ordinary parton distributions, form factors, Compton scattering and hard meson electroproduction is discussed.

We formulate and prove a QCD factorization theorem for hard exclusive electroproduction of mesons in QCD. The proof is valid for the leading power in Q and all logarithms. This generalizes previous work on vector meson production in the diffractive region of small x. The amplitude is expressed in terms of off-diagonal generalizations of the usual parton densities. The full theorem applies to all kinds of meson and not just to vector mesons. The parton densities used include n...

We argue that the electroproduction of exotic particles is a useful tool for study of their partonic structure. In the case of hybrid mesons, the magnitude of their cross sections shows that they are accessible for measurements in existing electroproduction experiments.

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.

Measurements of transition form factors for the electro-excitation of nucleon resonances in the Q^2=5-14 GeV^2 region can provide one with the information on quark wave functions at small transverse separations. In particular a comparison of form factors for the states of opposite parity can give insight in the mechanisms of chiral symmetry breaking. I discuss perspectives of the theoretical description of such reactions using a combination of lattice calculations and light-c...

We consider the reactions gamma p --> M B, with M B being either K+ Lambda, K+ Sigma0, or Pi n, within a diquark model which is based on perturbative QCD. The model parameters and the quark-diquark distribution amplitudes of the baryons are taken from previous investigations of electromagnetic baryon form factors and Compton-scattering off protons. Reasonable agreement with the few existing photoproduction data at large momentum transfer is found for meson distribution amplit...

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.

A consistent description of exclusive photoproduction of mesons at high momentum transfer t relies on a few effective degrees of freedom which can be checked against Lattice calculation or more effective models of QCD.

It is reported on predictions for the $\pi$-$\gamma$ transition form factor obtained within a perturbative approach which includes transverse momentum effects and Sudakov corrections. The results clearly favor distribution amplitudes close to the asymptotic form, $\sim x_1x_2$, and disfavor distribution amplitudes which are strongly concentrated in the end-point regions. Applications of that approach to the $\eta$-$\gamma$ and $\eta^\prime$-$\gamma$ transition form factors ar...

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.