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Title: Exclusive diffractive processes and the quark substructure of mesons

Journal Article · · Physical Review, D
 [1];  [1]
  1. Physics Division, Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, Illinois 60439-4843 (United States)

Exclusive diffractive processes on the nucleon are investigated within a model in which the quark-nucleon interaction is mediated by Pomeron exchange and the quark substructure of mesons is described within a framework based on the Dyson-Schwinger equations of QCD. The model quark-nucleon interaction has four parameters which are completely determined by high-energy {pi}N and KN elastic scattering data. The model is then used to predict vector-meson electroproduction observables. The obtained {rho}- and {phi}-meson electroproduction cross sections are in excellent agreement with experimental data. The predicted q{sup 2} dependence of J/{psi}-meson electroproduction also agrees with experimental data. It is shown that confined-quark dynamics plays a central role in determining the behavior of the diffractive, vector-meson electroproduction cross section. In particular, the onset of the asymptotic 1/q{sup 4} behavior of the cross section is determined by a momentum scale that is set by the current-quark masses of the quark and antiquark inside the vector meson. This is the origin of the striking differences between the q{sup 2} dependence of {rho}-, {phi}-, and J/{psi}-meson electroproduction cross sections observed in recent experiments. {copyright} {ital 1997} {ital The American Physical Society}

Research Organization:
Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)
DOE Contract Number:
W-31109-ENG-38
OSTI ID:
527133
Journal Information:
Physical Review, D, Vol. 56, Issue 3; Other Information: PBD: Aug 1997
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English