Deeply Virtual Compton Scattering Cross-Sections with CLAS

Abstract

The exclusive electroproduction of a photon off a nucleon provides three-dimensional information on the nucleon structure. This reaction proceeds via the Bethe-Heitler (BH) process (photon emitted by electron), and the Deeply Virtual Compton Scattering (DVCS) process (photon emitted by proton). BH and DVCS interfere at the amplitude level. In the Bjorken regime of large Q2 at fixed xB, and for ?t/Q2<1, the amplitude factorizes, the non-perturbative part described by Generalized Parton Distributions (GPDs). GPDs are the Fourier transform of the spatial distributions of partons in the transverse plane at fixed longitudinal momentum fraction xB. The BH and DVCS contributions create harmonic dependencies of observables as functions of the angle between the leptonic and hadronic planes, which are then used to extract GPDs. The BH/DVCS cross-sections on unpolarized hydrogen target have been measured with the CEBAF Large Acceptance Spectrometer (CLAS) in a dedicated experiment, at a polarized beam of energy 5.75 GeV, in the valence region 0.1