Two-photon-exchange effects in the electro-excitation of the $Δ$ resonance
We evaluate the two-photon exchange contribution to the $e N \to e Δ(1232) \to e πN$ process at large momentum transfer with the aim of a precision study of the ratios of electric quadrupole (E2) and Coulomb quadrupole (C2) to the magnetic dipole (M1) $γ^* N Δ$ transitions. We relate the two-photon exchange amplitude to the $N \to Δ$ generalized parton distributions and obtain a quantitative estimate of the two-photon effects. The two-photon exchange corrections to the C2/M1 ratio depend strongly on whether this quantity is obtained from an interference cross section or from the Rosenbluth-type cross sections, in similarity with the elastic, $e N \to e N$, process.