The charge asymmetry from pomeron–odderon interference in hard diffractive π+π−-electroproduction☆

The interference of Pomeron and Odderon amplitudes gives rise to a charge asymmetry in the diffractive electroproduction of a pi+pi- -pair. We calculate this charge asymmetry in perturbative QCD in the Born approximation and on the leading Q^2-level. The numerical evaluation shows a sizeable asymmetry in an experimentally accessible kinematical region. We find a characteristic m_{pi+pi} -dependence mainly dictated by the relevant Breit-Wigner-amplitudes and the corresponding phase-shifts.