Deeply virtual Compton Scattering off $^4$He

TL;DR

This paper analyzes deeply virtual Compton scattering off helium-4 nuclei using a rigorous Impulse Approximation, providing insights into nuclear structure and parton distributions, with implications for future quark and gluon studies.

Contribution

It presents the first analysis of $^4$He DVCS data within a comprehensive Impulse Approximation framework, linking experimental observables to advanced nuclear and parton models.

Findings

Good agreement with existing experimental data

Potential to reveal novel quark and gluon effects in nuclei

Framework applicable to future high-precision measurements

Abstract

Deeply virtual Compton scattering is a fascinating process which can provide a tomographic view of nuclei and bound nucleons. The first experimental results for $^4$He targets, recently released at Jefferson Lab, have been analyzed here in a rigorous Impulse Approximation scenario. For both the coherent and incoherent channels of the process, the main experimental observables have been written in terms of state-of-the-art models of the nuclear spectral function and of the parton structure of the bound proton. A good overall agreement with the data is obtained. The calculation shows that a comparison of our conventional results with future precise data can expose novel quark and gluon effects in nuclei.