Exclusive $\eta$ electroproduction at $W>2$ GeV with CLAS and transversity generalized parton distributions

The cross section of the exclusive $\eta$ electroproduction reaction $ep\to e^\prime p^\prime \eta$ was measured at Jefferson Lab with a 5.75-GeV electron beam and the CLAS detector. Differential cross sections $d^4\sigma \mathrm{/}dtd{Q}^{2}d{x}_{B}d{\varphi }_{\eta }$ and structure functions $\sigma_U = \sigma_T+\epsilon\sigma_L, \sigma_{TT}$and$\sigma_{LT}$,asfunctionsof$t$wereobtainedoverawiderangeof$Q^2$and$x_B$\mathrm{.}The$\eta$ structure functions are compared with those previously measured for ${\pi }^0$ at the same kinematics. At low $t$, both ${\pi }^0$ and $\eta$ are described reasonably well by generalized parton distributions (GPDs) in which chiral-odd transversity GPDs are dominant. The ${\pi }^0$ and $\eta$ data, when taken together, can facilitate the flavor decomposition of the transversity GPDs.