Hard Leptoproduction of Charged Vector Mesons

We present an analysis of twist-2, leading order QCD amplitudes for hard exclusive leptoproduction of charged vector mesons. These processes are determined by nonforward parton distribution functions which are nondiagonal in quark flavor. We derive relations between flavor diagonal and nondiagonal distribution functions based on isospin symmetry. Furthermore, we discuss general features of rho^+ and rho^- production cross sections, and present estimates based on a simple model for nonforward distribution functions.