We study in QCD the physics of deeply-virtual Compton scattering (DVCS)---the
virtual Compton process in the large s and small t kinematic region. We show
that DVCS can probe a new type of off-forward parton distributions. We derive
an Altarelli-Parisi type of evolution equations for these distributions. We
also derive their sum rules in terms of nucleon form-factors of the twist-two
quark and gluon operators. In particular, we find that the second sum rule is
related to fractions of the nucleon spin carried separately by quarks and
gluons. We estimate the cross section for DVCS and compare it with the
accompanying Bethe-Heitler process at CEBAF and HERMES kinematics.Comment: 20 pages, 2 figures, replaced with the version to appear in Phys.
Rev.
