Hard exclusive pion electroproduction at backward angles with CLAS

We report on the first measurement of cross sections for exclusive deeply virtual pion electroproduction off the proton, ep→e′nπ+, above the resonance region at backward pion center-of-mass angles. The φπ⁎-dependent cross sections were measured, from which we extracted three combinations of structure functions of the proton. Our results are compatible with calculations based on nucleon-to-pion transition distribution amplitudes (TDAs). These non-perturbative objects are defined as matrix elements of three-quark-light-cone-operators and characterize partonic correlations with a particular emphasis on baryon charge distribution inside a nucleon.