First-time measurement of Timelike Compton Scattering
P. Chatagnon, S. Niccolai, S. Stepanyan, M. J. Amaryan, G. Angelini, W. R. Armstrong, H. Atac, C. Ayerbe Gayoso et al.
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We present the first measurement of the Timelike Compton Scattering process, γp→p′γ∗(γ∗→e+e−), obtained with the CLAS12 detector at Jefferson Lab. The photon beam polarization and the decay lepton angular asymmetries are reported in the range of timelike photon virtualities 2.25<Q^{\prime 2}<9 GeV2, squared momentum transferred 0.1<-t<0.8 GeV2, and average total center-of-mass energy squared s=14.5 GeV2. The photon beam polarization asymmetry, similar to the beam-spin asymmetry in Deeply Virtual Compton Scattering, is sensitive to the imaginary part of the Compton Form Factors and provides a way to test the universality of the Generalized Parton Distributions. The angular asymmetry of the decay leptons accesses the real part of the Compton Form Factors and thus the D-term in the parametrization of the Generalized Parton Distributions.
