The generalized parton distributions, introduced nearly a decade ago, have emerged as a universal tool to describe hadrons in terms of quark and gluonic degrees of freedom. They combine the features of form factors, parton densities and distribution amplitudes--the functions used for a long time in studies of hadronic structure. Generalized parton distributions are analogous to the phase-space Wigner quasi-probability function of non-relativistic quantum mechanics which encodes full information on a quantum-mechanical system. We give an extensive review of main achievements in the development of this formalism. We discuss physical interpretation and basic properties of generalized parton distributions, their modeling and QCD evolution in the leading and next-to-leading orders. We describe how these functions enter a wide class of exclusive reactions, such as electro- and photo-production of photons, lepton pairs, or mesons. The theory of these processes requires and implies full control over diverse corrections and thus we outline the progress in handling higher-order and higher-twist effects. We catalogue corresponding results and present diverse techniques for their derivations. Subsequently, we address observables that are sensitive to different characteristics of the nucleon structure in terms of generalized parton distributions. The ultimate goal of the GPD approach is to provide a three-dimensional spatial picture of the nucleon, direct measurement of the quark orbital angular momentum, and various inter- and multi-parton correlations.Comment: 370 pages, 62 figures; Dedicated to Anatoly V. Efremov on occasion of his 70th anniversar

We compute the cross section for leptoproduction of the real photon off the nucleon, which is sensitive to the deeply virtual Compton scattering amplitude with power accuracy. Our considerations go beyond the leading twist and involve the complete analysis in the twist-three approximation. We discuss consequences of the target and lepton beam polarizations for accessing the generalized parton distributions from experimental measurements of the azimuthal angular dependence of the final state photon or nucleon. We introduce several sets of asymmetries, defined as Fourier moments with respect to the azimuthal angle, which allow for a clear separation of the twist-two and -three sectors. Relying on a simple ansatz for the generalized parton distributions, we give quantitative estimates for azimuthal and spin asymmetries, discuss the uncertainties of these predictions brought in by radiative corrections, and compare them with experimental data as well as other theoretical expectations. Furthermore, we derive a general parametrization of the DVCS amplitudes in the region of small Bjorken variable.Comment: 76 pages, LaTeX, 16 figures, 3 tables, minor correction