Exclusive hadronization in gamma* gamma -> pi pi

TL;DR

This paper analyzes the process of exclusive two-meson production in high-energy gamma* gamma collisions, focusing on factorization and the study of hadronization-related matrix elements in QCD.

Contribution

It provides a QCD framework for analyzing gamma* gamma -> pi pi processes at large Q^2, highlighting the factorization into perturbative and non-perturbative parts.

Findings

Factorization of the amplitude into perturbative and non-perturbative components.

Identification of two-meson distribution amplitudes.

Potential to explore hadronization and confinement physics.

Abstract

We perform a QCD analysis of exclusive two-meson production in gamma* gamma collisions in the kinematical domain of large photon virtuality Q^2 and small hadronic invariant mass W^2. In these kinematics the amplitude factorizes into a perturbative subprocess gamma* gamma -> q qbar and a two-meson distribution amplitude. This opens the way to study new hadronic matrix elements related with the physics of hadronization and confinement.