Diffractive Vector-Meson Production from the Light-Front Quark Model

Abstract

We study exclusive diffractive electroproduction of the $ρ^0$, $ϕ$, $J/ψ$, and $ψ(2S)$ mesons in the color-dipole picture using two spin-orbit light-front wave functions, S-1 and S-2. S-1 follows from the Melosh--Wigner rotation in the light-front quark model (LFQM), while S-2 is the spin-improved form commonly used in holographic and boosted-Gaussian approaches. Both share the same radial wave function, with their parameters determined from the LFQM Hamiltonian. The color-glass-condensate dipole parameters are fixed from inclusive structure-function data, with no fit to diffractive data. We compare the predictions with measurements of cross sections, $R=σ_L/σ_T$, $t$ and $W$ dependences, and $σ_ϕ/σ_ρ$. S-1 gives a better description of the light-meson observables, while S-2 provides a better description of the charmonium ratio $σ_{ψ(2S)}/σ_{J/ψ}$ and the $J/ψ$ decay constant. We also present the charge, magnetic, and quadrupole form factors of the four mesons and compare them with available lattice-QCD results.