Unraveling hadron structure with generalized parton distributions
The recently introduced generalized parton distributions have emerged as a universal tool to describe hadrons in terms of quark and gluonic degrees of freedom. They combine the features of form factors, parton densities and distribution amplitudes - the functions used for a long time in studies of hadronic structure. Generalized parton distributions are analogous to the phase-space Wigner quasi-probability function of non-relativistic quantum mechanics which encodes full information on a quantum-mechanical system. We give an extensive review of main achievements in the development of this formalism. We discuss physical interpretation and basic properties of generalized parton distributions, their modeling and QCD evolution in the leading and next-to-leading orders. We describe how these functions enter a wide class of exclusive reactions, such as electro- and photo-production of photons, lepton pairs, or mesons.
- Research Organization:
- Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility (TJNAF), Newport News, VA (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Energy Research (ER) (US)
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC05-84ER40150
- OSTI ID:
- 833593
- Report Number(s):
- JLAB-THY-04-34; DOE/ER/40150-2921; TRN: US0406737
- Resource Relation:
- Other Information: No journal information given for this preprint; PBD: 1 Oct 2004
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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