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Published: 2000

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The authors propose a measurement of the Deep Virtual Compton Scattering process (DVCS) ep → ep[gamma] in Hall A at Jefferson Lab with a 6 GeV beam. The authors are able to explore the onset of Q2 scaling, by measuring a beam helicity asymmetry for Q2 ranging from 1.5 to 2.5 GeV2 at x{sub B} ≈ 0.35. At this kinematics, the asymmetry is dominated by the DVCS Bethe-Heitler (BH) interference, which is proportional to the imaginary part of the DVCS amplitude amplified by the full magnitude of the BH amplitude. The imaginary part of the DVCS amplitude is expected to scale early. Indeed, the imaginary part of the forward Compton amplitude measured in deep inelastic scattering (via the optical theorem) scales at Q2 as low as 1 GeV2. If the scaling regime is reached, they make an 8% measurement of the skewed parton distributions (SPD) contributing to the DVCS amplitude. Also, this experiment allows them to separately estimate the size of the higher-twist effects, since they are only suppressed by an additional factor 1/Q compared to the leading-twist term, and have a different angular dependence. They use a polarized electron beam and detect the scattered electron in the HRSe, the real photon in an electromagnetic calorimeter (under construction) and the recoil proton in a shielded scintillator array (to be constructed). This allows them to determine the difference in cross-sections for electrons of opposite helicities. This observable is directly linked to the SPD's. The authors estimate that 25 days of beam (600 hours) are needed to achieve this goal.