Description and interpretation of DVCS measurements

Abstract

Having in mind the well-known limitations of certain models of generalized parton distributions (GPDs), we show that the allegedly universal GPDs, describing both deeply virtual Compton scattering (DVCS) and deeply virtual meson production (DVMP) data, fail to describe measurements of deep inelastic scattering. We present a new global DVCS fit that describes reasonably the world data set, which includes now also new measurements from Hall A and CLAS collaborations. We also explicitly illustrate that Compton form factors (CFFs) cannot be unambiguously extracted from photon electroproduction measurements off unpolarized proton alone and we argue that it is more reliable to interpret such measurements in terms of certain CFF combinations, where still some care is needed in order to estimate the propagated error.