Sullivan process near threshold and the pion gravitational form factors

TL;DR

This paper introduces a new experimental approach to measure the pion's gravitational form factors via the Sullivan process, focusing on near-threshold $J/\psi$ and $\phi$ production to probe gluon contributions.

Contribution

It presents a novel method to access pion gravitational form factors through near-threshold meson production in electron-proton scattering, with predictions for upcoming experiments.

Findings

Cross sections near thresholds are dominated by the gluon GFF of the pion.

Predicted cross sections for EIC and Jefferson Lab experiments.

Demonstrated the feasibility of extracting GFFs from specific meson production processes.

Abstract

We propose a novel method to experimentally access the gravitational form factors (GFFs) of the charged pion $\pi^+$ through the Sullivan process in electron-proton scattering. We demonstrate that the cross sections of $J/\psi$-photoproduction and $\phi$-electroproduction near the respective thresholds are dominated by the gluon GFF of the pion to next-to-leading order in perturbative QCD. We predict cross sections for the Electron-Ion Collider and the Jefferson Lab experiments.