High Energy exclusive Leptoproduction of the rho-meson: Theory and Phenomenology

We describe the hard leptoproduction of transversally polarized rho-meson, up to twist 3 accuracy, including 2- and 3- particles Fock-states, in the HERA kinematics of high center-of-mass energy. We first build a model based on a simple approach to the unintegrated gluon density (the parton impact factor) that we compare with H1 and ZEUS data for the ratios of helicity amplitudes T(gamma*T -> rhoT)/T(gamma*L -> rhoL) and T(gamma*T -> rhoL)/T(gamma*L -> rhoL) and get a good description of the data. We also show how saturation effects can be included in this model by extending the dipole representation of the scattering amplitude in coordinate space up to twist 3.