Exclusive ω meson muoproduction on transversely polarised protons

Abstract Exclusive production of ω mesons was studied at the COMPASS experiment by scattering 160 GeV / c muons off transversely polarised protons. Five single-spin and three double-spin azimuthal asymmetries were measured in the range of photon virtuality 1 ( GeV / c ) 2 Q 2 10 ( GeV / c ) 2 , Bjorken scaling variable 0.003 x Bj 0.3 and transverse momentum squared of the ω meson 0.05 ( GeV / c ) 2 p T 2 0.5 ( GeV / c ) 2 . The measured asymmetries are sensitive to the nucleon helicity-flip Generalised Parton Distributions (GPD) E that are related to the orbital angular momentum of quarks, the chiral-odd GPDs H T that are related to the transversity Parton Distribution Functions, and the sign of the πω transition form factor. The results are compared to recent calculations of a GPD-based model.