arXiv subjects
Publications and source records attributed to G. Piller.
A systematic multiple scattering formalism for vector meson electroproduction from nuclei is developed, with emphasis on the formation, propagation and hadronization scales for quark-gluon fluctuations of the virtual high-energy photon. The theory is compared to HERMES measurements of rho electroproduction on 14N. The nuclear transparency as a function of the vector meson propagation length is well reproduced.
A coordinate space description of shadowing in deep-inelastic lepton-nucleus scattering is presented. The picture in the laboratory frame is that of quark-gluon fluctuations of the high-energy virtual photon, propagating coherently over large light-cone distances in the nuclear medium. We discuss the detailed dependence of the coherence effects on the invariant mass of the fluctuation. We comment on the issue of possible saturation in the shadowing effects at very small Bjorken-$x$.
We have calculated the NLO corrections to the twist-2 part of the deeply-virtual Compton scattering amplitude. Our results for the transverse and antisymmetric parts agree with recent calculations by Ji and Osborne and by Belitsky and Müller. In addition we present NLO results for the longitudinal part of the amplitude.
We present a detailed analysis of resonance contributions in the context of higher twist effects in the moments of the proton spin structure function g_1. For each of these moments, it is found that there exists a characteristic Q^2 region in which (perturbative) higher twist corrections coexist with (non-perturbative) resonance contribution of comparable magnitude.
We discuss the electroproduction of light vector mesons from transversely polarized photons. Here QCD factorization cannot be applied as shown explicitly in a leading order calculation of corresponding Feynman diagrams. It is emphasized that present infrared singular contributions cannot be regularized through phenomenological meson distribution amplitudes with suppressed endpoint configurations. We point out that infrared divergencies arise also from integrals over skewed parton distributions of the nucleons. In a phenomenological analysis of transverse vector meson production model dependent regularizations have to be applied. If this procedure preserves the analytic structure suggested by a leading order calculation of Feynman diagrams, one obtains contributions from nucleon parton distributions and their derivatives. In particular polarized gluons enter only through their derivative.
We investigate the exclusive electroproduction of pi^+ mesons from nucleons. To leading twist, leading order alpha_s accuracy the corresponding production amplitude can be decomposed into pseudovector and pseudoscalar parts. Both can be expressed in terms of quark double distribution functions of the nucleon. While the pseudovector contribution is connected to ordinary polarized quark distributions, the pseudoscalar part can be related to one pion t-channel exchange. We observe that the pseudovector part of the production amplitude is important at x < 0.1. On the other hand, for 0.1 < x < 0.4 contributions from one pion exchange dominate.
We discuss the close relation between shadowing in deep-inelastic lepton-nucleus scattering and diffractive photo- and leptoproduction of hadrons from free nucleons. We show that the magnitude of nuclear shadowing at small Bjorken-x, as measured by the E665 and NMC collaborations, is directly related to HERA data on the amount of diffraction in the scattering from free nucleons.
In coordinate space, quark and gluon distributions of the nucleon are defined as correlation functions involving two field operators separated by a light-cone distance $y^+ = 2l$. We study the nuclear modifications of these distributions. The largest effect is a strong depletion of parton distributions (shadowing) at large longitudinal distances, which starts for all parton species at $l=2$ fm, i.e. at the average nucleon-nucleon separation in nuclei. On the other hand, the nuclear radius does not play a significant role. At $l \lsim 1$ fm, nuclear modifications of parton distributions are small. The intrinsic structure of individual nucleons is evidently not very much affected by nuclear binding. In particular, there is no evidence for a significant increase of the quark or gluon correlation length in bound nucleons.
We generalize the sum rules for the nucleon electric plus magnetic polarizability $Σ=α+β$ and for the nucleon spin-polarizability $γ$, to virtual photons with $Q^2>0$. The dominant low energy cross sections are represented in our calculation by one-pion-loop graphs of relativistic baryon chiral perturbation theory and the $Δ(1232)$-resonance excitation. For the proton we find good agreement of the calculated $Σ_p(Q^2)$ with empirical values obtained from integrating up electroproduction data for $Q^2<0.4 GeV^2$. The proton spin-polarizability $γ_p(Q^2)$ switches sign around $Q^2= 0.4 GeV^2$ and it joins smoothly the "partonic" curve, extracted from polarized deep-inelastic scattering, around $Q^2=0.7 GeV^2$. For the neutron our predictions of $Σ_n(Q^2)$ and $γ_n(Q^2)$ agree reasonably well at $Q^2=0$ with existing determinations. Upcoming (polarized) electroproduction experiments will be able to test the generalized polarizability sum rules investigated here.
We investigate polarized deuteron structure functions at small values of the Bjorken variable, x < 0.1. In this region contributions from the coherent interaction of diffractively excited hadronic states with both nucleons become important. A proper treatment of this process requires an extension of the Glauber-Gribov multiple scattering theory to include spin degrees of freedom. In the kinematic domain of current fixed target experiments we observe that shadowing effects in g_1d are approximately twice as large as for the unpolarized structure function F_2d. Furthermore at x < 0.1 the tensor structure function b_1 is found to receive significant contributions from coherent double scattering.
In this paper we discuss coherent photo- and leptoproduction of vector mesons from deuterons at intermediate (virtual) photon energies, 3 < nu < 30 GeV. We consider the scattering from unpolarized and polarized targets as well as processes where the polarization of the recoil deuteron is measured. Our main motivation results from the need for a quantitative analysis of the space-time structure of photon-induced processes. In this respect we suggest several possibilities to explore the characteristic longitudinal interaction length in coherent vector meson production. Furthermore, we outline methods for an investigation of color coherence effects. In addition to the presentation of benchmark values for the maximal possible color coherence effect in various kinematic regions, we illustrate the anticipated phenomena within the color diffusion model. Finally we recall that the determination of vector meson-nucleon cross sections is not a closed issue. Besides being not known to a satisfying accuracy, they can be used to determine the strength of the D-state in low mass vector mesons.
We present an analysis of twist-2, leading order QCD amplitudes for hard exclusive leptoproduction of mesons in terms of double/nonforward parton distribution functions. After reviewing some general features of nonforward nucleon matrix elements of twist-2 QCD string operators, we propose a phenomenological model for quark and gluon nonforward distribution functions. The corresponding QCD evolution equations are solved in the leading logarithmic approximation for flavor nonsinglet distributions. We derive explicit expressions for hard exclusive pi^0, eta, and neutral vector meson production amplitudes and discuss general features of the corresponding cross sections.
We present an analysis of twist-2, leading order QCD amplitudes for hard exclusive leptoproduction of charged vector mesons. These processes are determined by nonforward parton distribution functions which are nondiagonal in quark flavor. We derive relations between flavor diagonal and nondiagonal distribution functions based on isospin symmetry. Furthermore, we discuss general features of rho^+ and rho^- production cross sections, and present estimates based on a simple model for nonforward distribution functions.
In QCD the gauge-invariant gluon polarization Delta G in a nucleon can be defined either in a non-local way as the integral over the Ioffe-time distribution of polarized gluons, or in light-cone gauge as the forward matrix element of the local topological current. We have investigated both possibilities within the framework of QCD sum rules. Although the topological current is built from local fields, we have found that its matrix element retains sensitivity to large longitudinal distances. Because QCD sum rules produce artificial oscillations of the Ioffe-time distribution of polarized glue at moderate and large light-like distances, the calculation of the matrix element of the topological current results in a small value of Delta G(mu^2 = 1 GeV^2) = 0.6 \pm 0.2. In a more consistent approach QCD sum rules are used to describe the polarized gluon distribution only at small light-like distances. Assuming that significant contributions to Delta G arise only from longitudinal length scales not larger than the nucleon size leads to Delta G(mu^2 = 1 GeV^2) = 2 \pm 1.
Shadowing effects in deep-inelastic lepton-nucleus scattering probe the mass spectrum of diffractive leptoproduction from individual nucleons. We explore this relationship using current experimental information on both processes. In recent data from the NMC and E665 collaboration, taken at small x << 0.1 and Q^2 < 1 GeV^2, shadowing is dominated by the diffractive excitation and coherent interaction of low mass vector mesons. If shadowing is explored at small x << 0.1 but large Q^2 >> 1 GeV^2 as discussed at HERA, the situation is different. Here dominant contributions come from the coherent interaction of diffractively produced heavy mass states. Furthermore we observe that the energy dependence of shadowing is directly related to the mass dependence of the diffractive production cross section for free nucleon targets.
We discuss the coherent photo- and leptoproduction of vector mesons from deuterium at intermediate (virtual) photon energies, 3 GeV < nu < 30 GeV. These processes provide several options to explore the space-time evolution of small size quark-gluon configurations. Furthermore, we study the dependence of the production cross section on the energy and momentum transfer t due to variations of the finite longitudinal interaction length. Kinematic regions are determined where the production cross section is most sensitive to the final state interaction of the initially produced hadronic wave packet. For unpolarized deuteron targets this double scattering contribution can be investigated mainly at large values of the momentum transfer t. For polarized targets kinematic windows sensitive to double scattering are available also at moderate t. We suggest several methods for an investigation of color coherence effects at intermediate energies.
We investigate shadowing corrections to the polarized deuteron structure functions g_1^d and b_1. In the kinematic domain of current fixed target experiments we observe that shadowing effects in g_1^d are approximately twice as large as for the unpolarized structure function F_2^d. Furthermore, we find that b_1 is surprisingly large at x < 0.1 and receives dominant contributions from coherent double scattering.
The gluon polarization $ΔG$ in a nucleon can be defined in a gauge invariant way as the integral over the Ioffe-time distribution of polarized gluons. We argue that for sufficiently regular polarized gluon distributions $ΔG$ is dominated by contributions from small and moderate values of the Ioffe-time z < 10. As a consequence $ΔG$ can be estimated with 20% accuracy from the first two even moments of the polarized gluon distribution, and its behavior at small values of Bjorken x or, equivalently, at large Ioffe-times z. We employ this idea and compute the first two moments of the polarized gluon distribution within the framework of QCD sum rules. Combined with the color coherence hypothesis we obtain an upper limit for $ΔG \sim 2 \pm 0.5$ at a typical scale $μ^2 \sim 1 GeV^2$.