The ${\gamma^* \gamma^* \to \eta_c (1S,2S)}$ transition form factors for spacelike photons

TL;DR

This paper develops a light-front wave function approach to calculate the $ o ext{eta}_c$ transition form factors for two virtual photons, compares with experimental data, and investigates factorization breaking effects.

Contribution

It introduces a LFWF-based method for $ o ext{eta}_c$ transition form factors using various potential models and analyzes factorization breaking effects.

Findings

Factorization is strongly broken in the transition form factors.

The form factor scaling as a function of $ar Q^2$ is established.

Comparison with BaBar data shows delayed asymptotic behavior.

Abstract

We derive the light-front wave function (LFWF) representation of the $\gamma^* \gamma^* \to \eta_c(1S)\,,\eta_c(2S)$ transition form factor $F(Q_1^2, Q_2^2)$ for two virtual photons in the initial state. For the LFWF, we use different models obtained from the solution of the Schr\"odinger equation for a variety of $c \bar c$ potentials. We compare our results to the BaBar experimental data for the $\eta_c(1S)$ transition form factor, for one real and one virtual photon. We observe that the onset of the asymptotic behaviour is strongly delayed and discuss applicability of the collinear and/or massless limit. We present some examples of two-dimensional distributions for $F (Q_1^2,Q_2^2)$. A factorization breaking measure is proposed and factorization breaking effects are quantified and shown to be almost model independent. Factorization is shown to be strongly broken, and a scaling of the form factor as a function of $\bar Q^2 = (Q_1^2 + Q_2^2)/2$ is obtained.