Pion-production cross sections in neutrino reactions for studying generalized parton distributions of the nucleon

Abstract

Gravitational form factors of hadrons provide information on mass and pressure distributions in the hadrons, and they have been investigated by generalized parton distributions (GPDs). The GPDs also contain information on internal compositions of hadron spins. Understanding on the origin of hadron masses, pressures, and spins is an important topic not only in hadron physics but also as fundamental physics, and it should be clarified by the GPD studies. The spacelike and timelike GPDs have been measured at charged-lepton accelerator facilities, for example, by the virtual Compton scattering and the two-photon process, respectively. In this work, we show the $\pi^\pm$ and $\pi^0$ production cross sections in neutrino (antineutrino) reactions $\nu \,(\bar\nu) + N \to \ell + \pi + N'$ for measuring the GPDs of the nucleon by using the theoretical formalism of Pire, Szymanowski, and Wagner. The $\pi^\pm$-production cross sections are useful for determining gluon GPDs, whereas the $\pi^0$ production probes quark GPDs. In particular, we show the roles of the pion- and rho-pole terms, the contribution from each GPD term ($H$, $E$, $\tilde H$, $\tilde E$), the effects of the gluon GPDs $H_g$ and $E_g$, and the effects of the reaction energy on the neutrino cross sections. The $\pi^0$-production cross section is sensitive to the quark GPDs including the pion- and rho-pole GPD terms in the Efremov-Radyushkin-Brodsky-Lepage region. These cross sections could be measured at Fermilab in future. The neutrino GPD studies will play a complementary role to the projects of charged-lepton and hadron reactions for determining the accurate GPDs.