We analyze the light meson leptoproduction within the handbag approach. We show that effects determined by the transversity Generalized Parton Distributions (GPDs), $H_T$ and $bar E_T$ are essential in the description of pseudoscalar and vector meson leptoproduction.
Hard exclusive pi+ electroproduction is investigated within the handbag approach. The prominent role of the pion-pole contribution is demonstrated. It is also shown that the experimental data require a twist-3 effect which ensues from the helicity-fl
ip generalized parton distribution H_T and the twist-3 pion wave function. The results calculated from this handbag approach are compared in detail with the experimental data on cross sections and spin asymmetries measured with a polarized target. It is also commented on consequences of this approach for exclusive pi^0 and vector-meson electroproduction.
Electroproduction of light vector mesons is analyzed on the basis of handbag factorization. The required generalized parton distributions are constructed from the CTEQ6 parton distributions with the help of double distributions. The partonic subproce
sses are calculated within the modified perturbative approach. The present work extends our previous analysis of the longitudinal cross section to the transverse one and other observables related to both the corresponding amplitudes. Our results are compared to recent experimental findings in detail.
