Study of Two-Photon Corrections in the $p\bar{p}-->e+e-$ Process: Hard Rescattering Mechanism

Abstract

We investigate the two-photon corrections to the process $p\bar{p}\to e^{+}{e}^{-}$ at large momentum transfer, aimed to access the time-like nucleon form factors. We estimate the two-photon corrections using a hard rescattering mechanism, which has already been used to calculate the corresponding corrections to elastic electron-proton scattering. Using different nucleon distribution amplitudes, we find that the two-photon corrections to the $p\bar{p}\to e^{+}{e}^{-}$ cross sections in the momentum transfer range 5 - 30 GeV${}^2$ is below the 1 % level.