Real Compton Scattering at High Transverse Momentum Transfer

Abstract

We discuss the physics motivation for a program of Real Compton Scattering on the proton in the regime where both the incident energy and the transverse momentum transfer are large. It is shown that such a program can test which of the various hard scattering mechanisms is dominant and can allow a measurement of a new generalized form factor that is sensitive to both the flavor and spin structure of the proton. It is further shown that the measurements are experimentally feasible using existing or already planned equipment up to incident energies of 12 GeV.