Photoproduction of electron-positron pairs on the proton in the resonance region

Production of lepton pairs in the γp → e−e+p reaction is studied at photon energies up to 1 GeV. We show that even if lepton charge is not measured there are extensive kinematical regimes where the nuclear process dominates over the Bethe-Heitler contribution. The decomposition is performed of the unpolarized cross section for the virtual Compton scattering in terms of response functions. These are expressed in terms of a polarization density matrix of the virtual photon and are shown to be sensitive to the properties of baryon resonances in the first and the second resonance regions. In the analysis a unitary K-matrix model is used, based on an effective Lagrangian including nucleon, mesons, and baryon resonances with masses up to 1.7 GeV. Results of the model are compared with data for real-photon Compton scattering and predictions are given for observables in photoproduction of lepton pairs. 1996 PACS numbers: 13.30.-a, 13.40.-f, 13.40.Gp, 13.40.Hq, 13.60.Fz