Accessing the pion 3D structure at US and China Electron-Ion Colliders

TL;DR

This paper investigates the potential to measure the three-dimensional structure of the pion using deeply virtual Compton scattering at upcoming electron-ion colliders in the US and China, employing advanced models and NLO calculations.

Contribution

It provides the first systematic feasibility study of accessing pion generalized parton distributions at electron-ion colliders with a state-of-the-art model and NLO analysis.

Findings

Quark and gluon interference effects are significant.

Gluon dominance may be identified by a sign change in the beam spin asymmetry.

Feasibility of measuring pion GPDs at future colliders is demonstrated.

Abstract

We present in this letter the first systematic feasibility study of accessing generalised parton distributions of the pion at an electron-ion collider through deeply virtual Compton scattering at next-to-leading order. It relies on a state-of-the-art model, able to fulfil by construction all the theoretical constraints imposed on generalised parton distributions. Strikingly, our analysis shows that quarks and gluons interfere destructively and that gluon dominance could be spotted by a sign change of the DVCS beam spin asymmetry.