DVCS-Dissociation of the Deuteron and the EMC Effect

Abstract

The break-up of the deuteron during deeply-virtual Compton scattering, gamma* d --> gamma(*) n p, is explored. In the effective field theory describing nucleon dynamics at momenta below the pion mass, the EMC effect results from four-nucleon interactions with the twist-2 operators, appropriate for describing forward, and near-forward, matrix elements in the two-nucleon system. We point out that the break-up of the deuteron to low-energy final states during deeply-virtual Compton scattering is a process with which to explore strong-interaction physics closely related to that responsible for the EMC effect. The single-nucleon contribution to the break-up depends on the moments of the spin-dependent structure functions and contributions from local four-nucleon operators. Experimental deviations from the single-nucleon prediction would provide a probe of strong interactions complimentary to the EMC effect.