  An impulse approximation analysis is described of the generalized parton
distributions (GPDs) H and E of the 3He nucleus, quantities which are
accessible in hard exclusive processes, such as coherent deeply virtual Compton
scattering (DVCS). The calculation is based on the Av18 interaction. The
electromagnetic form factors are correctly recovered in the proper limits. The
sum of the GPDs H and E of 3He, at low momentum transfer, is largely dominated
by the neutron contribution, thanks to the unique spin structure of 3He. This
nucleus is therefore very promising for the extraction of the neutron
information. By increasing the momentum transfer, however, this conclusion is
somehow hindered by the the fast growing proton contribution. Besides, even
when the neutron contribution to the GPDs of 3He is largely dominating, the
procedure of extracting the neutron GPDs from it could be, in principle,
nontrivial. A technique is therefore proposed, independent on both the nuclear
potential and the nucleon model used in the calculation, able to take into
account the nuclear effects included in the IA analysis and to safely extract
the neutron information at values of the momentum transfer large enough to
allow the measurements. Thanks to this observation, coherent DVCS should be
considered a key experiment to access the neutron GPDs and, in turn, the
orbital angular momentum of the partons in the neutron.
