Investigating the timelike Compton scattering in photon–proton interactions at the EIC

Abstract Information about the three-dimensional description of the quark and gluon content of hadrons, described by the generalized parton distributions (GPDs), can be probed by exclusive processes in electron–proton (ep) collisions. In this letter, we investigate the timelike Compton scattering (TCS) in ep collisions at the future electron-ion collider (EIC). Such process is characterized by the exclusive dilepton production through the subprocess $$\gamma p \rightarrow \gamma ^*p \rightarrow l^+ l^- p$$ γ p → γ ∗ p → l + l - p , with the real photon in the initial state being emitted by the incoming electron. Assuming a given model for the GPDs, the TCS differential cross-section is estimated, as well the contribution associated to the interference between the TCS and Bethe–Heitler (BH) amplitudes. Predictions for the TCS, BH and interference contributions are presented considering the kinematical range expected to be covered by the EIC detectors. Moreover, the polarized photon asymmetry is also studied. Our results indicated that a future experimental analysis, considering photon circular polarizations, can be useful to probe the interference contribution and constrain the description of the GPDs for the proton.