- Open Access
Study of deeply virtual Compton scattering at the future electron-ion collider
Phys. Rev. D 112, 036010 – Published 15 August, 2025
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/fy8y-bjc9
Abstract
This study presents the impact of future measurements of deeply virtual Compton scattering (DVCS) with the ePIC detector at the electron-ion collider (EIC), currently under construction at Brookhaven National Laboratory. The considered process is sensitive to generalized parton distributions (GPDs), the understanding of which is a cornerstone of the EIC physics program. Our study marks a milestone in the preparation of DVCS measurements at EIC and provides a reference point for future analyses. In addition to presenting distributions of basic kinematic variables obtained with the latest ePIC design and simulation software, we examine the impact of future measurements on the understanding of nucleon tomography and DVCS Compton form factors, which are directly linked to GPDs. We also assess the impact of radiative corrections and background contribution arising from exclusive production.
Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)
Article Text
References (79)
- D. Mueller, D. Robaschik, B. Geyer, F. M. Dittes, and J. Hořejši, Wave functions, evolution equations and evolution kernels from light ray operators of QCD, Fortschr. Phys. 42, 101 (1994).
- A. V. Radyushkin, Nonforward parton distributions, Phys. Rev. D 56, 5524 (1997).
- X.-D. Ji, Deeply virtual Compton scattering, Phys. Rev. D 55, 7114 (1997).
- X.-D. Ji, Off forward parton distributions, J. Phys. G 24, 1181 (1998).
- M. Burkardt, Impact parameter dependent parton distributions and off forward parton distributions for , Phys. Rev. D 62, 071503 (2000); 66, 119903(E) (2002).
- X.-D. Ji, Gauge-invariant decomposition of nucleon spin, Phys. Rev. Lett. 78, 610 (1997).
- M. V. Polyakov, Generalized parton distributions and strong forces inside nucleons and nuclei, Phys. Lett. B 555, 57 (2003).
- K. Goeke, J. Grabis, J. Ossmann, M. V. Polyakov, P. Schweitzer, A. Silva, and D. Urbano, Nucleon form-factors of the energy momentum tensor in the chiral quark-soliton model, Phys. Rev. D 75, 094021 (2007).
- M. V. Polyakov and P. Schweitzer, Forces inside hadrons: Pressure, surface tension, mechanical radius, and all that, Int. J. Mod. Phys. A 33, 1830025 (2018).
- C. Lorcé, H. Moutarde, and A. P. Trawiński, Revisiting the mechanical properties of the nucleon, Eur. Phys. J. C 79, 89 (2019).
- L. Favart, M. Guidal, T. Horn, and P. Kroll, Deeply virtual meson production on the nucleon, Eur. Phys. J. A 52, 158 (2016).
- K. Kumerički, S. Liuti, and H. Moutarde, GPD phenomenology and DVCS fitting: Entering the high-precision era, Eur. Phys. J. A 52, 157 (2016).
- N. d’Hose, S. Niccolai, and A. Rostomyan, Experimental overview of deeply virtual Compton scattering, Eur. Phys. J. A 52, 151 (2016).
- A. Accardi et al., Strong interaction physics at the luminosity frontier with 22 GeV electrons at Jefferson Lab, Eur. Phys. J. A 60, 173 (2024).
- D. P. Anderle et al., Electron-ion collider in China, Front. Phys. (Beijing) 16, 64701 (2021).
- R. Abdul Khalek et al., Science requirements and detector concepts for the electron-ion collider: EIC yellow report, Nucl. Phys. A1026, 122447 (2022).
- ePIC Collaboration, The ePIC detector collaboration, https://www.bnl.gov/eic/epic.php (2024).
- E.-C. Aschenauer, S. Fazio, K. Kumerički, and D. Mueller, Deeply virtual Compton scattering at a proposed high-luminosity electron-ion collider, J. High Energy Phys. 09 (2013) 093.
- E. C. Aschenauer, V. Batozskaya, S. Fazio, K. Gates, H. Moutarde, D. Sokhan, H. Spiesberger, P. Sznajder, and K. Tezgin, ePIC: Novel Monte Carlo generator for exclusive processes, Eur. Phys. J. C 82, 819 (2022).
- A. V. Belitsky, D. Mueller, and Y. Ji, Compton scattering: From deeply virtual to quasi-real, Nucl. Phys. B878, 214 (2014).
- K. M. Semenov-Tian-Shansky and P. Sznajder, Systematic description of hadron’s response to nonlocal QCD probes: Froissart-Gribov projections in analysis of deeply virtual Compton scattering, Phys. Rev. D 109, 054010 (2024).
- V. Bertone, H. Dutrieux, C. Mezrag, J. M. Morgado, and H. Moutarde, Revisiting evolution equations for generalised parton distributions, Eur. Phys. J. C 82, 888 (2022).
- A. V. Vinnikov, Code for prompt numerical computation of the leading order GPD evolution, arXiv:hep-ph/0604248.
- V. Bertone, apfel++: A new PDF evolution library in c++, Proc. Sci. DIS2017 (2018) 201 [arXiv:1708.00911].
- GeParD Development Team, GeParD: Tool for studying the 3D quark and gluon distributions in the nucleon, https://gepard.phy.hr (accessed: May 31, 2025).
- M. Burkardt, Impact parameter dependent parton distributions and transverse single spin asymmetries, Phys. Rev. D 66, 114005 (2002).
- M. Burkardt, Impact parameter space interpretation for generalized parton distributions, Int. J. Mod. Phys. A 18, 173 (2003).
- K. Kumerički, Measurability of pressure inside the proton, Nature (London) 570, E1 (2019).
- H. Dutrieux, C. Lorcé, H. Moutarde, P. Sznajder, A. Trawiński, and J. Wagner, Phenomenological assessment of proton mechanical properties from deeply virtual Compton scattering, Eur. Phys. J. C 81, 300 (2021).
- V. D. Burkert, L. Elouadrhiri, and F. X. Girod, The mechanical radius of the proton, arXiv:2310.11568.
- Webpage of ePIC project, https://pawelsznajder.github.io/epic (accessed: November 3, 2023).
- B. Berthou et al., partons: PARtonic tomography of nucleon software: A computing framework for the phenomenology of generalized parton distributions, Eur. Phys. J. C 78, 478 (2018).
- Webpage of partons project, https://partons.cea.fr (accessed: November 3, 2023).
- J. Kripfganz, H. J. Mohring, and H. Spiesberger, Higher order leading logarithmic QED corrections to deep inelastic scattering at very high-energies, Z. Phys. C 49, 501 (1991).
- A. Buckley, P. Ilten, D. Konstantinov, L. Lönnblad, J. Monk, W. Pokorski, T. Przedzinski, and A. Verbytskyi, The hepmc3 event record library for Monte Carlo event generators, Comput. Phys. Commun. 260, 107310 (2021).
- Webpage of hepmc3 project, https://gitlab.cern.ch/hepmc/HepMC3 (accessed: November 3, 2023).
- P. Kroll, H. Moutarde, and F. Sabatie, From hard exclusive meson electroproduction to deeply virtual Compton scattering, Eur. Phys. J. C 73, 2278 (2013).
- S. V. Goloskokov and P. Kroll, Vector meson electroproduction at small Bjorken-x and generalized parton distributions, Eur. Phys. J. C 42, 281 (2005).
- S. V. Goloskokov and P. Kroll, The target asymmetry in hard vector-meson electroproduction and parton angular momenta, Eur. Phys. J. C 59, 809 (2009).
- Webpage of linterp project, http://rncarpio.github.io/linterp (accessed: November 3, 2023).
- S. Jadach and P. Sawicki, mfoam-1.02: A compact version of the cellular event generator foam, Comput. Phys. Commun. 177, 441 (2007).
- A. Kiselev and A. Jentsch, eicroot: A light-weight geant detector simulation software suite based on the fairroot framework, https://github.com/eic/EicRoot (2020).
- R. Brun and F. Rademakers, root—An object oriented data analysis framework, Nucl. Instrum. Methods Phys. Res., Sect. A 389, 81 (1997).
- S. Agostinelli et al. (GEANT4 Collaboration), geant4—A simulation toolkit, Nucl. Instrum. Methods Phys. Res., Sect. A 506, 250 (2003).
- ePIC Collaboration, Simulation framework for the ePIC Collaboration, https://github.com/eic/epic (2020).
- J. Adam et al., Electron ion collider conceptual design report, https://www.bnl.gov/ec/files/EIC_CDR_Final.pdf (2021).
- J. Adam et al. (ATHENA Collaboration), athena detector proposal—A totally hermetic electron nucleus apparatus proposed for IP6 at the electron-ion collider, J. Instrum. 17, P10019 (2022).
- A. Jentsch, Z. Tu, and C. Weiss, Deep-inelastic electron-deuteron scattering with spectator nucleon tagging at the future electron ion collider: Extracting free nucleon structure, Phys. Rev. C 104, 065205 (2021).
- J. Rauch and T. Schlüter, genfit—A generic track-fitting toolkit, J. Phys. Conf. Ser. 608, 012042 (2015).
- R. E. Kalman, A new approach to linear filtering and prediction problems, J. Basic Eng. 82, 35 (1960).
- S. Chekanov et al. (ZEUS Collaboration), Measurement of deeply virtual Compton scattering at HERA, Phys. Lett. B 573, 46 (2003).
- M. I. Abdulhamid et al. (STAR Collaboration), Results on elastic cross sections in proton–proton collisions at GeV with the STAR detector at RHIC, Phys. Lett. B 852, 138601 (2024).
- M. Aaboud et al. (ATLAS Collaboration), Measurement of the total cross section from elastic scattering in pp collisions at with the ATLAS detector, Phys. Lett. B 761, 158 (2016).
- G. Antchev et al. (The TOTEM Collaboration), LHC optics measurement with proton tracks detected by the Roman pots of the TOTEM experiment, New J. Phys. 16, 103041 (2014).
- K. Kumerički and D. Mueller, Description and interpretation of DVCS measurements, EPJ Web Conf. 112, 01012 (2016).
- H. Moutarde, P. Sznajder, and J. Wagner, Border and skewness functions from a leading order fit to DVCS data, Eur. Phys. J. C 78, 890 (2018).
- V. M. Braun, Y. Ji, and A. N. Manashov, Next-to-leading-power kinematic corrections to DVCS: A scalar target, J. High Energy Phys. 01 (2023) 078.
- M. Derrick et al. (ZEUS Collaboration), Measurement of the proton structure function in ep scattering at HERA, Phys. Lett. B 316, 412 (1993).
- R. Akhunzyanov et al. (COMPASS Collaboration), Transverse extension of partons in the proton probed in the sea-quark range by measuring the DVCS cross section, Phys. Lett. B 793, 188 (2019); 800, 135129(E) (2020).
- H. S. Jo et al. (CLAS Collaboration), Cross sections for the exclusive photon electroproduction on the proton and generalized parton distributions, Phys. Rev. Lett. 115, 212003 (2015).
- S. V. Goloskokov and P. Kroll, Transversity in hard exclusive electroproduction of pseudoscalar mesons, Eur. Phys. J. A 47, 112 (2011).
- M. G. Alexeev et al. (COMPASS Collaboration), Measurement of the cross section for hard exclusive muoproduction on the proton, Phys. Lett. B 805, 135454 (2020).
- G. Duplančić, P. Kroll, K. Passek-K., and L. Szymanowski, Twist-3 contribution to deeply virtual electroproduction of pions, Phys. Rev. D 109, 034008 (2024).
- L. Adamczyk et al. (The ZEUS Collaboration), Measurement of the luminosity in the ZEUS experiment at HERA II, Nucl. Instrum. Methods Phys. Res., Sect. A 744, 80 (2014).
- K. Piotrzkowski, Challenging luminosity measurements at the electron-ion collider, J. Instrum. 16, P09023 (2021).
- A. Aktas et al. (H1 Collaboration), Measurement of deeply virtual compton scattering at HERA, Eur. Phys. J. C 44, 1 (2005).
- F. D. Aaron et al. (H1 Collaboration), Deeply virtual Compton scattering and its beam charge asymmetry in collisions at HERA, Phys. Lett. B 681, 391 (2009).
- ZEUS Collaboration, A measurement of the , and dependences of deeply virtual Compton scattering at HERA, J. High Energy Phys. 05 (2009) 108.
- P. Zyla et al. (Particle Data Group), Review of particle physics, Prog. Theor. Exp. Phys. 2020, 083C01 (2020), and 2021 update.
- V. M. Braun, A. N. Manashov, D. Müller, and B. M. Pirnay, Deeply virtual Compton scattering to the twist-four accuracy: Impact of finite- and target mass corrections, Phys. Rev. D 89, 074022 (2014).
- R. Dupré, M. Guidal, S. Niccolai, and M. Vanderhaeghen, Analysis of deeply virtual Compton scattering data at Jefferson Lab and proton tomography, Eur. Phys. J. A 53, 171 (2017).
- A. V. Belitsky, D. Mueller, and A. Kirchner, Theory of deeply virtual Compton scattering on the nucleon, Nucl. Phys. B629, 323 (2002).
- L. N. Hand, Experimental investigation of pion electroproduction, Phys. Rev. 129, 1834 (1963).
- E. C. Aschenauer, V. Batozskaya, S. Fazio, A. Jentsch, J. Kim, K. Kumerički, H. Moutarde, K. Passek-K., D. Sokhan, H. Spiesberger, P. Sznajder, and K. Tezgin, Database for studying Generalized Parton Distributions (GPDs), https://opengpd.github.io/gpddatabase/file_3a47b046.html.
- K. Kumerički, D. Mueller, and A. Schaefer, Neural network generated parametrizations of deeply virtual Compton form factors, J. High Energy Phys. 07 (2011) 073.
- H. Moutarde, P. Sznajder, and J. Wagner, Unbiased determination of DVCS Compton form factors, Eur. Phys. J. C 79, 614 (2019).
- A. Airapetian et al. (HERMES Collaboration), Beam-helicity and beam-charge asymmetries associated with deeply virtual Compton scattering on the unpolarised proton, J. High Energy Phys. 07 (2012) 032.
- A. Airapetian et al. (HERMES Collaboration), Exclusive leptoproduction of real photons on a longitudinally polarised hydrogen target, J. High Energy Phys. 06 (2010) 019.
- A. Airapetian et al. (HERMES Collaboration), Measurement of azimuthal asymmetries with respect to both beam charge and transverse target polarization in exclusive electroproduction of real photons, J. High Energy Phys. 06 (2008) 066.