Virtual compton scattering at high energy

The virtual compton scattering (VCS) reaction (ep --> e'p'gamma) at high energy will provide new information on the proton structure. The invariant momentum transfer (t = (q - q')(2)) dependence of high energy VCS is related to the flavor dependent vector and axial-vector form factors of the the proton. Thus VCS can provide information that is complementary to parity violating electron scattering measurements. For small t and large Q(2), VCS generalizes the structure functions of deep inelastic lepton scattering. These generalized structure functions have a sum rule which yields the net contribution of quark spin and orbital angular momentum to the proton spin. A large acceptance detector such as the MEMUS design, capable of running at a luminosity 10(35)/cm(2)/sec at incident electron energies from 10 to 30 GeV can measure the VCS process in a broad and exciting kinematic range.