The perturbative limit of the two-pion distribution amplitude

Abstract

We consider pion pair production in two-photon collisions, gamma* gamma -> pi+ pi-, at large photon virtuality Q^2 and center-of-mass energy \sqrt{s} in the hard-scattering picture. In the limit where s is large but s << Q^2 we derive an expression for the two-pion light-cone distribution in terms of the conventional pion distribution amplitudes. Our result reproduces the well-known scaling behavior, helicity selection rule and symmetry relations in this regime.

14 pages, 4 figures