Timelike Compton Scattering from JLAB to RHIC and LHC energies

Abstract

Timelike Compton scattering (TCS) i.e. the exclusive photoproduction of a lepton pair with large invariant mass nicely complements the already successful experimental study of deeply virtual Compton scattering (DVCS). The same Generalized Parton Distributions enter both amplitudes, which offer a promissing way to access the quark and gluon nucleon structure. We review recent progress in this domain, emphasizing the fact that analyticity and factorization properties dictate the relation of the NLO corrections to TCS to those of DVCS. We also stress that data on TCS at high energy should be available soon thanks to the proposed experimental program at JLab at 12 GeV, and that, before the future high energy electron ion colliders become reality, the study of ultraperipheral collisions at the RHIC and LHC may open a window on quark and gluon GPDs at very small skewness. .