Some Issues in Deeply-Virtual Compton Scattering

Abstract

Compton scattering provides a unique tool for studying hadron structure. In contrast to elastic electron scattering, which provides information about the hadron’s structure in terms of form factors, Compton scattering is more versatile, as the basic process is the coupling of two electro-magnetic currents. Therefore, the hadronic structure can be described at high momentum transfer in the language of generalized parton distributions (GPDs), which code information about the light-front wave functions of the probed hadrons. In this paper we discuss some issues involved in the application of the GPD idea, in particular the effectivity of Compton scattering as a filter of the hadron structure.