The Use of Dispersion Relations in Hard Exclusive Processes and the Partonic Interpretation of Deeply Virtual Compton Scattering

Abstract

Recently dispersion relations have been applied to hard exclusive processes such as deeply virtual Compton scattering, and a holographic principle was proposed that maps out the generalized parton distributions entering the soft matrix elements for the processes from their values on a given kinematical ridge. We examine possible pitfalls associated with the implicit, direct identification in this approach of the physical hadronic states with colored partons, and suggest an improved treatment of this assumption.