Polarization Transfer in Proton Compton Scattering at High Momentum Transfer

Compton scattering from the proton was investigated at s=6.9 (GeV/c)**2 and \t=-4.0 (GeV/c)**2 via polarization transfer from circularly polarized incident photons. The longitudinal and transverse components of the recoil proton polarization were measured. The results are in excellent agreement with a prediction based on a reaction mechanism in which the photon interacts with a single quark carrying the spin of the proton and in disagreement with a prediction of pQCD based on a two-gluon exchange mechanism.