Hard diffractive electroproduction of vector mesons in QCD

Journal Article · Sun Sep 01 00:00:00 EDT 1996 · Physical Review, D

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.54.3194· OSTI ID:383377

Frankfurt, L; Koepf, W ^[1]; Strikman, M ^[2]

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1. School of Physics and Astronomy, Raymond and Beverly Sackler Faculty of Exact Sciences, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv (Israel)
2. Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania (United States)

Hard diffractive electroproduction of longitudinally polarized vector mesons is calculated within the leading {alpha}{sub {ital s}}ln({ital Q}{sup 2}/{Lambda}{sub QCD}{sup 2}) approximation of QCD using the leading order parton densities within the nucleon. Novel QCD features of the production of excited states and of the restoration of flavor symmetry are analyzed. At the onset of the asymptotic regime, our analysis finds an important role of quark Fermi motion within the diffractively produced vector mesons, and we suggest to use this effect to measure the high momentum tail of the wave function of the vector mesons. We deduce a kinematical boundary for the region of applicability of the decomposition of the hard amplitudes over powers of {ital Q}{sup 2} and/or a limit on the increase of the cross sections of hard processes at small {ital x}, and briefly analyze its consequences. We also estimate the nuclear attenuation of the diffractive electroproduction of vector mesons and compare with estimates of the shadowing of the longitudinal structure function. {copyright} {ital 1996 The American Physical Society.}

• DOE Contract Number: FG02-93ER40771
• OSTI ID: 383377
• Journal Information: Physical Review, D, Journal Name: Physical Review, D Journal Issue: 5 Vol. 54; ISSN PRVDAQ; ISSN 0556-2821
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

66 PHYSICS
AMPLITUDES
CROSS SECTIONS
DECOMPOSITION
DECOUPLING
DENSITY
DIFFRACTION MODELS
ELECTROPRODUCTION
EXCITED STATES
FERMIONS
FLAVOR
KOBAYASHI-MASKAWA MATRIX
LAGRANGIAN FUNCTION
NUCLEONS
PARTONS
POLARIZATION
QUANTUM CHROMODYNAMICS
QUARKS
STANDARD MODEL
STRUCTURE FUNCTIONS
VECTOR MESONS
WAVE FUNCTIONS