Electroproduction of isolated protons at high energy as a probe of the proton wave function in QCD

Abstract

We investigate the feasibility of using the process$eq \to ep\bar q\bar q$ as a means of determining the proton wave function which governs all exclusive processes involving protons. The calculation is performed in the limitŴ ² ≪Q ², whereŴ is the CM energy of the subprocess. The resulting expressions simplify considerably when an additional constraint is imposed excluding any hadrons accompanying the proton from a cone around it of half-angle θ≪1. However, a direct determination is still only possible in the case of a symmetric wave-function. A numerical exploration of the sensitivity of the cross-section to the parameters of an ansatz for the wave function shows a strong dependence on components which are not totally symmetric.