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Subtracted dispersion relations for virtual Compton scattering off the proton

Igor Danilkin1, Barbara Pasquini2,3, Matteo Ronchi1,2, and Marc Vanderhaeghen1

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Phys. Rev. D 114, 054035 – Published 17 September, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/lv7d-fpls

Abstract

We present a once-subtracted dispersion relation (DR) formalism for the virtual Compton scattering (VCS) process from threshold up to the Δ(1232) energy region. The formalism aims at extracting the nucleon’s electric and magnetic generalized polarizabilities from the e−p→e−γp process, in view of the precision goals of the present and near-future experiments at Jefferson Lab. The present work improves upon the existing unsubtracted DR formalism in several ways. The required s- and t-channel discontinuities in the subtracted dispersion integrals are obtained in a largely data-driven manner in this energy region. The s-channel dispersive integrals are reconstructed from γ*p→πN→γp using pion photo- and electro-production data, while the t-channel dispersion integrals are evaluated from γ*γ→ππ→NN¯ using recent dispersive analyses of both the γ*γ→ππ and ππ→NN¯ processes. We compare our results to VCS data and show the sensitivity of the observables to the nucleon’s scalar generalized polarizabilities, which enter the present formalism as subtraction constants.

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Phys. Rev. D 114, 054035– Published 17 September, 2026
  • Received 17 March 2026
  • Accepted 29 July 2026
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Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article’s title, journal citation, and DOI. Funded by SCOAP3.

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