Pion production in deeply virtual Compton scattering

Using a soft pion theorem based on chiral symmetry and a $\Delta(1232)$ resonance model we propose an estimate for the production cross section of low energy pions in the deeply virtual Compton scattering (DVCS) process. In particular, we express the $e p \to e \gamma \pi N$ processes in terms of generalized parton distributions. We provide estimates of the contamination of the $e p \to e \gamma p$ DVCS observables due to this associated pion production processes when the experimental data are not fully exclusive, for a set of kinematical conditions representative of present or planned experiments at JLab, HERMES and COMPASS.