QCD factorization in gamma* gamma -> pi pi and gamma* N -> pi pi N

Exclusive two-pion production near threshold in the collision of a highly virtual photon with a real one offers a new possibility to unravel the partonic content of hadrons. We explain the dynamics of this regime, i.e. the separation of the amplitude in terms of partonic diagrams computable in QCD perturbation theory and generalized distribution amplitudes, which are nonperturbative functions describing the exclusive transition of a parton pair into two hadrons. The same quantities also appear in gamma* N -> pi pi N in the kinematical regime where the momentum transfer of the nucleon and the invariant mass of the pion pair are both small; this allows to extend the QCD analysis of exclusive rho electroproduction outside the resonance region of the two produced pions.