Single Spin Azimuthal Asymmetry Associated with Deeply Virtual Compton Scattering
Abstract
The HERMES experiment at DESY has performed a measurement of the beam-spin asymmetry of the azimuthal (φ) distribution in the nearly exclusive electroproduction of real photons off a proton target. This asymmetry results from the interference of the Bethe-Heitler and Deeply Virtual Compton Scattering (DVCS) processes. The sinφ moment of this asymmetry is sensitive to the imaginary parts of the DVCS helicity amplitudes. In the Bjorken limit, the DVCS process can be factorized into the hard scattering of a virtual photon off a parton and a soft interaction containing new non-perturbative information described by generalized parton distribution functions of the proton. The Q^2 dependence of the asymmetry is indicative of the extent to which this factorization holds. Details of the analysis as well as results for the asymmetry and its kinematic dependencies (Q^2,t) will be presented.
- Publication:
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APS April Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- April 2002
- Bibcode:
- 2002APS..APRI10003E