Exclusive Processes in Quantum Chromodynamics and the Light-Cone Fock Representation
- SLAC
Exclusive processes provide a window into the bound state structure of hadrons in QCD as well as the fundamental processes which control hadron dynamics at the amplitude level. The natural calculus for describing bound state structure of relativistic composite systems needed for describing exclusive amplitudes is the light-cone Fock expansion which encodes the multi-quark, gluonic, and color correlations of a hadron in terms of frame-independent wavefunctions. In hard exclusive processes in which hadrons receive a large momentum transfer, perturbative QCD leads to factorization theorems which separate the physics of bound state structure from that of the relevant quark and gluonic hard-scattering reactions which underlie these reactions. At leading twist, the bound state physics is encoded in terms of universal ''distribution amplitudes,'' the fundamental theoretical quantities which describe the valence quark substructure of hadrons as well as nuclei. The combination of discretized light-cone quantization and transverse lattice methods are now providing nonperturbative predictions for the pion distribution amplitude. A basic feature of the gauge theory formalism is ''color transparency,'' the absence of initial and final state interactions of rapidly-moving compact color-singlet states. Other applications of the factorization formalism are briefly discussed, including semileptonic B decays, deeply virtual Compton scattering, and dynamical higher twist effects in inclusive reactions. A new type of jet production reaction, ''self-resolving diffractive interactions'' provide empirical constraints on the light-cone wavefunctions of hadrons in terms of their quark and gluon degrees of freedom as well as the composition of nuclei in terms of their nucleon and mesonic degrees of freedom.
- Research Organization:
- Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, Menlo Park, CA (US)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Energy Research (ER) (US)
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC03-76SF00515
- OSTI ID:
- 784781
- Report Number(s):
- SLAC-PUB-8649
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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