A measurement of unpolarized cross sections and polarized cross section differences of deeply virtual compton scattering on the proton at Jefferson Laboratory using CLAS (e1-dvcs2)

Abstract

This thesis focuses on the Deeply Virtual Compton Scattering (DVCS) reaction e + p → e' + p' + gamma(DVCS). The reaction is measured using the e1-dvcs2 experiment run at Jefferson Laboratory in Hall B using CLAS. The experiment took place from 22 October, 2008 to 23 January, 2009, and experiment run time of 90 days. This analysis focuses on the determination of the DVCS cross section in bins of x_B, Q2, t and phi, and makes a comparison with already existing and parallel analyses of DVCS. By factorizing the cross section of the reaction into perturbative and non-perturbative parts, we may relate the cross section of this reaction to Generalized Parton Distributions (GPDs) for the proton, and in doing so, provide better insight as to the distributions of quarks and gluons within it, including spatial distribution and contributions of angular momentum.