Nucleon Compton scattering in the Dyson-Schwinger approach

We analyze the nucleon's Compton scattering amplitude in the Dyson-Schwinger/Faddeev approach. We calculate a subset of diagrams that implements the nonperturbative handbag contribution as well as all t-channel resonances. At the quark level, these ingredients are represented by the quark Compton vertex whose analytic properties we study in detail. We derive a general form for a fermion two-photon vertex that is consistent with its Ward-Takahashi identities and free of kinematic singularities, and we relate its transverse part to the on-shell nucleon Compton amplitude. We solve an inhomogeneous Bethe-Salpeter equation for the quark Compton vertex in rainbow-ladder truncation and implement it in the nucleon Compton scattering amplitude. The remaining ingredients are the dressed quark propagator and the nucleon's bound-state amplitude which are consistently solved from Dyson-Schwinger and covariant Faddeev equations. We verify numerically that the resulting quark Compton vertex and nucleon Compton amplitude both reproduce the πγγ transition form factor when the pion pole in the t channel is approached.