Quasielastic rho-meson knockout from nucleons by high-energy electrons

Abstract

The electroproduction of charged rho mesons on a nucleon under conditions of quasielastic kinematics [Q ² > 2 (GeV/c)², W > 3 GeV, and ω _ρ ≃ q ⁰ in the laboratory frame] is considered. The main diagrams involved in this process are taken into account, and it is shown that the case of rho-meson knockout by a longitudinal photon is dominated by the t-channel pole diagram featuring a rho meson, so that direct rho-meson electroknockout makes a leading contribution to the process being considered. Questions concerning the gauge invariance of the electroproduction process are considered in detail, along with contact terms that inevitably arise in employing form factors in ρNN vertices and which are necessary for restoring gauge invariance. It is shown that the structure of these contact terms is not determined exclusively by the requirement that the electroproduction amplitude be gauge-invariant and may be such that the corresponding correction to the dominant diagram due to these terms proves to be suppressed in the quasielastic region (with increasing Q ²), with the result that the t-pole process featuring a rho meson remains dominant; at the same time, the contribution of this correction is significant at low Q ² or in the case of photoproduction, modifying substantially the electroproduction cross section.