title: Two-photon-exchange correction to parity-violating elastic electron-proton scattering.
abstract: Higher-order QED effects play an important role in precision measurements of nucleon elastic form factors in electron scattering. Here we introduce a two-photon-exchange QED correction to the parity-violating polarization asymmetry of elastic electron-proton scattering. We calculate this correction in the parton model using the formalism of generalized parton distributions, and demonstrate that it can reach several percent in certain kinematics, becoming comparable in size with existing experimental measurements of strange-quark effects in the proton neutral weak current.
authors.affiliation: Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility, Newport News, Virginia 23606, USA.
authors.forename: Andrei V
authors.initials: AV
authors.lastname: Afanasev
authors.forename: Carl E
authors.initials: CE
authors.lastname: Carlson