Exclusive electroproduction and off-diagonal parton distributions

Off-diagonal parton distributions occur in several hard exclusive reactions. They extend the study of hadron structure beyond what can be learned from ordinary distributions and have a particularly rich spin structure. The hard scattering subprocesses in electroproduction of mesons and of real photons satisfy helicity selection rules, which provide powerful tools to test leading-twist dominance at a given value of the hard scale.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figures, LaTeX2e. Talk given at the Fourth Workshop on Quantum Chromodynamics, Paris, France, 1-6 June 199

Polarisation in deeply virtual meson production

We discuss two aspects of polarisation in hard exclusive meson production: the leading-twist selection rule for the meson helicity, and the different partial waves of a (pi pi)-pair which may or may not be due to the decay of a rho.Comment: 9 pages, 1 figure. Talk given at the Workshop on Exclusive and Semiexclusive Processes at High Momentum Transfer, Jefferson Lab, May 1999. Remark added on the transition from two gluons to a pion pai

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

Timelike Compton scattering: exclusive photoproduction of lepton pairs

We investigate the exclusive photoproduction of a heavy timelike photon which decays into a lepton pair, gamma p -> l+ l- p. This can be seen as the analog of deeply virtual Compton scattering, and we argue that the two processes are complementary for studying generalized parton distributions in the nucleon. In an unpolarized experiment the angular distribution of the leptons readily provides access to the real part of the Compton amplitude. We estimate the possible size of this effect in kinematics where the Compton process should be dominated by quark exchange.Comment: 31 pages, 17 figure

Production of rho meson pair in gamma* gamma* collisions

We have shown that the lowest order QCD amplitude, i.e. the quark exchange contribution, to the forward production of a pair of longitudinally polarized rmesons in the scattering of two virtual photons gamma (Q1) gamma (Q2) rho rho factorizes in two 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 rho transition distribution amplitude. Perturbative expressions forthese, in general, non-perturbative functions are obtained in terms of the rho meson distribution amplitude.Comment: International Workshop on Diffraction in High-Energy Physics -DIFFRACTION 2006 - September 5-10 2006 Adamantas, Milos island, Greec

Photoproduction of a \pi \rho Pair and Transversity GPDs

We demonstrate that the chiral-odd transversity generalized parton distributions (GPDs) of the nucleon can be accessed through the exclusive photoproduction process gamma + N -> pi + rho + N', in the kinematics where the meson pair has a large invariant mass and the final nucleon has a small transverse momentum, provided the vector meson is produced in a transversely polarized state. We calculate perturbatively the scattering amplitude at leading order in alpha_s: We build a simple model for the dominant transversity GPD HT (x; chi; t) based on the concept of double distribution. Counting rates estimates show that the experiment looks feasible with the real photon beam characteristics expected at JLab@12 GeV, in low Q2 leptoproduction at Jlab@12 GeV and in the COMPASS experiment.Comment: Latex, 7 pages, 4 .eps figs, Invited talk at the 4th Workshop on Exclusive Reactions at High Momentum Transfer May 18-21, 2010 Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility, Newport News, Virginia US

Spin Observables in Transition-Distribution-Amplitude Studies

Exclusive hadronic reactions with a massive lepton pair (l^+l^-) in the final state will be measured with PANDA at GSI-FAIR and with Compass at CERN, both in p+p-bar -> l^+l^-+pi and pi+N -> N'+l^+l^-. Similarly, electroproduction of a meson in the backward region will be studied at JLAB. We discuss here how the spin structure of the amplitude for such processes will enable us to disentangle various mechanisms. For instance, target-transverse-spin asymmetries are specific of a partonic description, where the amplitude is factorised in terms of baryon to meson or meson to baryon Transition Distribution Amplitudes (TDAs) as opposed to what is expected from baryon-exchange contributions.Comment: Contributed to the 19th International Spin Physics Symposium (SPIN 2010), September 27 - October 2, 2010, Juelich, Germany. 8 pages, 7 figures, uses jpconf.cls, jpconf11.clo, iopams.sty (included

Identifying Prognostic Indicators for Electrical Treeing in Solid Insulation through PD Analysis

This paper presents early results from an experimental study of electrical treeing on commercially available pre-formed silicone samples. A needle-plane test arrangement was set up using hypodermic needles. Partial discharge (PD) data was captured using both the IEC 60270 electrical method and radio frequency (RF) sensors, and visual observations are made using a digital microscope. Features of the PD plot that corresponded to electrical tree growth were assessed, evaluating the similarities and differences of both PD measurement techniques. Three univariate phase distributions were extracted from the partial discharge phase-resolved (PRPD) plot and the first four statistical moments were determined. The implications for automated lifetime prediction of insulation samples due to electrical tree development are discussed

Off-diagonal helicity density matrix elements for heavy vector mesons inclusively produced in N-N, gamma-N, l-N interactions

Final state interactions in quark fragmentation may give origin to non zero values of the off-diagonal element rho_(1,-1) of the helicity density matrix of vector mesons V produced in current jets, with a large energy fraction x_E; the value of rho_(1,-1)(V) is related to the hard constituent dynamics and tests unusual properties of it. Some recent data on phi, K^* and D^* produced in e^+ e^- annihilations at LEP show such effects. Predictions are given here for rho_(1,-1) of heavy mesons produced in nucleon-nucleon, gamma-nucleon and lepton-nucleon interactions.Comment: LaTeX, 10 pages, 1 postscript figure, uses epsfig.sty. Revised version, to be published on Phys. Lett. B. Some statements added to clarify tex