Wide angle Compton scattering on the proton: study of power suppressed corrections

Abstract

We study the wide angle Compton scattering process on a proton within the soft-collinear factorization (SCET) framework. The main purpose of this work is to estimate the effect due to certain power suppressed corrections. We consider all possible kinematical power corrections and also include the subleading amplitudes describing the scattering with nucleon helicity flip. Under certain assumptions we present a leading-order factorization formula for these amplitudes which includes the hard- and soft-spectator contributions. We apply the formalism and perform a phenomenological analysis of the cross section and asymmetries in the wide angle Compton scattering on a proton. We assume that in the relevant kinematical region where $$-t,-u>2.5$$ GeV$$^{2}$$ the dominant contribution is provided by the soft-spectator mechanism. The hard coefficient functions of the corresponding SCET operators are taken in the leading-order approximation. The analysis of existing cross section data shows that the contribution of the helicity-flip amplitudes to this observable is quite small and comparable with other expected theoretical uncertainties. We also show predictions for double polarization observables for which experimental information exists