QCD description of diffractive {rho} meson electroproduction
- Department of Physics, University of Durham, Durham, DH1 3LE (United Kingdom)
We critically review the QCD predictions for the cross sections {sigma}{sub L} and {sigma}{sub T} for diffractive {rho} meson electroproduction in longitudinally and transversely polarized states in the DESY HERA energy region. We show that both perturbative and nonperturbative approaches, which involve convolution with the {rho} meson wave function, predict values of {sigma}{sub T} which fall off too quickly with increasing Q{sup 2}, in comparison with the data. We present a perturbative QCD model based on the open production of light q{bar q} pairs and parton-hadron duality, which describes all features of the data for {rho} electroproduction at high Q{sup 2} and, in particular, predicts a satisfactory Q{sup 2} behavior of {sigma}{sub L}/{sigma}{sub T}. We find that precise measurements of the latter can give valuable information on the Q{sup 2} behavior of the gluon distribution at small x. {copyright} {ital 1997} {ital The American Physical Society}
- OSTI ID:
- 477090
- Journal Information:
- Physical Review, D, Journal Name: Physical Review, D Journal Issue: 7 Vol. 55; ISSN PRVDAQ; ISSN 0556-2821
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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