Inclusive and Exclusive Compton Processes in Quantum Chromodynamics

In our work, we describe two types of Compton processes. As an example of an inclusive process, we consider the high-energy photoproduction of massive muon pairs off the nucleon. We analyze the process in the framework of the QCD parton model, in which the usual parton distributions emerge as a tool to describe the nucleon in terms of quark and gluonic degrees of freedom. To study its exclusive version, a new class of phenomenological functions is required, namely, generalized parton distributions. They can be considered as a generalization of the usual parton distributions measured in deeply inelastic lepton-nucleon scattering. Generalized parton distributions (GPDs) may be observed in hard exclusive reactions such as deeply virtual Compton scattering. We develop an extension of this particular process into the weak interaction sector. We also investigate a possible application of the GPD formalism to wide-angle real Compton scattering