Deeply inelastic pions in the exclusive reaction $p(e,e'\pi^+)n$ above   the resonance region
  A model for the $p(e,e'\pi^+)n$ reaction which combines an improved treatment of gauge invariant meson--exchange currents and hard deep--inelastic scattering (DIS) of virtual photons off nucleons is proposed. It is shown that DIS dominates and explains the transverse response at moderate and high photon virtualities $Q^2$ whereas the longitudinal response is dominated by hadronic degrees of freedom and the pion electromagnetic form factor. This leads to a combined description of the longitudinal and transverse components of the cross section in a wide range of photon virtuality $Q^2$ and momentum transfer to the target $t$ and solves the longstanding problem of the observed large transverse cross sections. The latter are shown to be sensitive to the intrinsic transverse momentum distribution of partons. 
Murat M. Kaskulov, Kai Gallmeister, Ulrich Mosel (Giessen U.)