The GPD H-tilde and spin correlations in wide-angle Compton scattering

Abstract

Wide-angle Compton scattering (WACS) is discussed within the handbag approach in which the amplitudes are given by products of hard subprocess amplitudes and form factors, specific to Compton scattering, which represent 1/x-moments of generalized parton distributions (GPDs). The quality of our present knowledge of these form factors and of the underlying GPDs is examined. As will be discussed in some detail the form factor R_A and the underlying GPD H-tilde are poorly known. It is argued that future data on the spin correlations A_{LL} and/or K_{LL} will allow for an extraction of R_A which can be used to constrain the large -t behavior of H-tilde.