The gravitational form factors of hadrons from CFT in momentum space and the dilaton in perturbative QCD

Abstract We analyze the hard scattering amplitude of the gravitational form factors (GFFs) of hadrons at one-loop, in relation to their conformal field theory (CFT) description, within the framework of QCD factorization for hard exclusive processes at large momentum transfers. These form factors play an essential role in studying the quark and gluon angular momentum of the hadrons due to their relation to the Mellin moments of the Deeply virtual Compton scattering (DVCS) invariant amplitudes. Our analysis is performed using a diffeomorphism invariant approach, applying the formalism of the gravitational effective action and conformal symmetry in momentum space for the discussion of the quark and gluon contributions. The interpolating correlator in the hard scattering of any GFF is the non-Abelian TJJ (stress-energy/gluon/gluon) 3-point function at $$O(\alpha _s^2)$$ <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"> <mml:mrow> <mml:mi>O</mml:mi> <mml:mo>(</mml:mo> <mml:msubsup> <mml:mi>α</mml:mi> <mml:mi>s</mml:mi> <mml:mn>2</mml:mn> </mml:msubsup> <mml:mo>)</mml:mo> </mml:mrow> </mml:math> , revealing an effective dilaton interaction in the t -channel due to the trace anomaly, in the form of a massless anomaly pole in the QCD hard scattering. We investigate the role of quarks, gauge-fixing and ghost contributions in the reconstruction of the hard scattering amplitude mediated by this interaction, performed in terms of its transverse traceless, longitudinal, and trace decomposition, as identified from CFT in momentum space ( $$\hbox {CFT}_p$$ <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"> <mml:msub> <mml:mtext>CFT</mml:mtext> <mml:mi>p</mml:mi> </mml:msub> </mml:math> ). We present a convenient parameterization of the hard scattering amplitude relevant for future experimental investigations of the DVCS/GFF amplitudes at the electron-ion collider at BNL.