Two-Photon-Exchange Effects and $\Delta(1232)$ Deformation

Abstract

The two-photon-exchange (TPE) contribution in $ep\rightarrow ep\pi ^0$ with $W=M_{\Delta}$ and small $Q^2$ is calculated and its corrections to the ratios of electromagnetic transition form factors $R_{EM} = E_{1+}^{(3/2)}/M_{1+}^{(3/2)} $ and $R_{SM} = S_{1+}^{(3/2)}/M_{1+}^{(3/2)}$, are analysed. A simple hadronic model is used to estimate the TPE amplitude. Two phenomenological models, MAID2007 and SAID, are used to approximate the full $ep\rightarrow ep\pi ^0$ cross sections which contain both the TPE and the one-photon-exchange (OPE) contributions. The genuine the OPE amplitude is then extracted from an integral equation by iteration. We find that the TPE contribution is not sensitive to whether MAID or SAID is used as input in the region with $Q^2<2$ GeV$^2$. It gives small correction to $R_{EM}$ while for $R_{SM}$, the correction is about -10\% at small $\epsilon$ and about $1\%$ at large $\epsilon$ for $Q^2\approx2.5$ GeV$^2$. The large correction from TPE at small $\epsilon$ must be included in the analysis to get a reliable extraction of $R_{SM}$.