Nucleon Form Factors and Distribution Amplitudes in QCD

We derive light-cone sum rules for the electromagnetic nucleon form factors including the next-to-leading-order corrections for the contribution of twist-three and twist-four operators and a consistent treatment of the nucleon mass corrections. The essence of this approach is that soft Feynman contributions are calculated in terms of small transverse distance quantities using dispersion relations and duality. The form factors are thus expressed in terms of nucleon wave functions at small transverse separations, called distribution amplitudes, without any additional parameters. The distribution amplitudes, therefore, can be extracted from the comparison with the experimental data on form factors and compared to the results of lattice QCD simulations. A selfconsistent picture emerges, with the three valence quarks carrying 40%:30%:30% of the proton momentum.Comment: 27 pages, 7 figures uses revte

Axial form factor of the nucleon at large momentum transfers

Motivated by the emerging possibilities to study threshold pion electroproduction at large momentum transfers at Jefferson Laboratory following the 12 GeV upgrade, we provide a short theory summary and an estimate of the nucleon axial form factor for large virtualities in the $Q^2 = 1-10~\text{GeV}^2$ range using next-to-leading order light-cone sum rules.Comment: A comparison to the new neutrino data analysis and several references added. Final version to appear in Phys.Rev.

Strong and radiative decays of the Ds0*(2317) meson in the DK-molecule picture

We consider a possible interpretation of the new charm-strange meson Ds0*(2317) as a hadronic molecule - a bound state of D and K mesons. Using an effective Lagrangian approach we calculate the strong Ds0* to Ds pi0 and radiative Ds0* to Ds* gamma decays. A new impact related to the DK molecular structure of the Ds0*(2317) meson is that the presence of u(d) quarks in the D and K mesons gives rise to a direct strong isospin-violating transition Ds0* to Ds pi0 in addition to the decay mechanism induced by eta-pi0 mixing considered previously. We show that the direct transition dominates over the eta-pi0 mixing transition in the Ds0* to Ds pi0 decay. Our results for the partial decay widths are consistent with previous calculations.Comment: 22 pages, 4 figures, accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.

Real Compton Scattering via Color Dipoles

We study photoabsorption reaction and real Compton scattering (RCS) within the color dipole model. We rely on a photon wave function derived in the instanton vacuum model, and on the energy dependent phenomenological elastic dipole amplitude. Data for the photoabsorption cross section at high energies agree with our parameter free calculations. We also provide predictions for the differential RCS cross section. Although no data for small angle Compton scattering are available so far, this process can be measured in ultra-peripheral hadronic and nuclear collisions at the LHC.Comment: 9 pages, 4 figures. Some statements clarified, bibliographic inaccuracy correcte

Construction of nonlocal light-cone operators with definite twist

A systematic procedure is introduced to uniquely decompose nonlocal LC-operators into harmonic operators of well defined geometric twist. The method will be demonstrated for (pseudo)scalar, (axial) vector and skew tensor bilocal quark light-ray operatorsComment: 4 pages, AMSTeX, Contribution to 7th Int. Workshop on Deep Inelastic Scatterin and QCD, Zeuthen, April 1999 change of formulas 25 and 2

Ds0*(2317) and Ds1(2460) mesons in two-body B-meson decays

We analyze the branching ratios of B to D(*) + Ds0*(Ds1) decays using the factorization hypothesis. The B to D(*) transition form factors are taken from a model-independent analysis done by Caprini, Lellouch and Neubert based on heavy quark spin symmetry and dispersive constraints, including short-distance and power corrections. The leptonic decay constants fDs0* and fDs1 are calculated assuming a molecular structure for the Ds0* and Ds1 mesons. The calculated branching ratios of B-meson two-body decays are compared with experimental data and other theoretical results.Comment: 12 pages, 2 figure

Kinematical twist-3 effects in DVCS as a quark spin rotation

We point out that the kinematical twist-3 contributions to the DVCS amplitude, required to restore electromagnetic gauge invariance of the twist-2 amplitude up to O(t/q^2), can be understood as a spin rotation applied to the twist-2 quark density matrix in the target. This allows for a compact representation of the twist-3 effects, as well as for a simple physical interpretation.Comment: 4 pages, revtex, 3 eps figures included using eps

QCD factorizations in gamma* gamma* -> rho rho

We calculate the lowest order QCD amplitude, i.e. the quark exchange contribution, to the forward production amplitude of a pair of longitudinally polarized $\rho$ mesons in the scattering of two virtual photons $\gamma^*(Q_1) \gamma^*(Q_2) \to \rho^0_L \rho^0_L$. We show that the scattering amplitude simultaneously factorizes in two quite different ways: the part with transverse photons is described by the QCD factorization formula involving the generalized distribution amplitude of two final $\rho$ mesons, whereas the part with longitudinally polarized photons takes the QCD factorized form with the $\gamma^*_L \to \rho^0_L$ transition distribution amplitude. Perturbative expressions for these, in general, non-perturbative functions are obtained in terms of the $\rho-$meson distribution amplitude

Generalized parton distributions of the pion in a Bethe-Salpeter approach

We calculate generalized parton distribution functions in a field theoretic formalism using a covariant Bethe-Salpeter approach for the determination of the bound-state wave function. We describe the procedure in an exact calculation in scalar Electrodynamics proving that the relevant corrections outside our scheme vanish. We extend the formalism to the Nambu--Jona-Lasinio model, a realistic theory of the pion. We go in both cases beyond all previous calculations and discover that all important features required by general physical considerations, like symmetry properties, sum rules and the polynomiality condition, are explicitly verified. We perform a numerical study of their behavior in the weak and strong coupling limits.Comment: 19 pages, 21 eps figures, accepted for publication in EPJ