Sullivan process near threshold and the pion gravitational form factors

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 $\varphi$-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.

arXiv comment11 pages, 15 figures. v2: plots updated, references added, to be published in Phys.Rev.Lett