A next-to-leading order QCD analysis of deeply virtual Compton scattering amplitudes

Abstract

We present a next-to-leading order (NLO) QCD analysis of unpolarized and polarized deeply virtual Compton scattering (DVCS) amplitudes, for two different input scenarios, in the $\bar{MS}$ scheme. We illustrate and discuss the size of the NLO effects and the behavior of the amplitudes in skewedness, $\zeta$, and photon virtuality, $Q^2$. In the unpolarized case, at fixed $Q^2$, we find a remarkable effective power-law behaviour in $\zeta$, akin to Regge factorization, over several orders of magnitude in $\zeta$. We also quantify the ratio of real to imaginary parts of the DVCS amplitudes and their sensitivity to changes of the factorization scale.