Sullivan Process near Threshold and the Pion Gravitational Form Factors

We propose a novel method to experimentally access the gravitational form factors of the charged pion 𝜋⁺ through the Sullivan process in electron-proton scattering. We demonstrate that the cross sections of 𝐽/𝜓 photoproduction and 𝜙 electroproduction near the respective thresholds are dominated by the gluon gravitational form factor 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.. Authors: Hatta, Yoshitaka [Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), Upton, NY (United States). RIKEN Research Center] (ORCID:0000000168803238); Schoenleber, Jakob [Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), Upton, NY (United States). RIKEN Research Center]. DOE Contract: SC0012704. Subjects: 73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS; form factors; generalized parton distributions; quantum chromodynamics