English

Dilaton Sum Rules of Gravitational Form Factors in QCD at Order $\alpha_s$

High Energy Physics - Phenomenology 2026-03-31 v2 High Energy Physics - Theory

Abstract

We formulate a partonic description of hadronic gravitational form factors within QCD, focusing on the three-point function of the energy-momentum tensor and two gluon currents. Despite the lack of exact conformal symmetry in QCD, the correlator may be organized around the conformal limit through momentum-space CFT methods, suitably adjusted for gauge-fixing effects. This yields a tensor decomposition into spin-2, spin-1, and spin-0 sectors, with the spin-0 contribution governed by the conformal anomaly. The corresponding anomaly form factor satisfies a mass-independent dispersive sum rule and allows a dilaton-like interpretation. In the light-cone limit, this term and an additional traceless structure become dominant, indicating an effective anomaly-mediated description relevant to hadronic gravitational form factors.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2603.24303,
  title  = {Dilaton Sum Rules of Gravitational Form Factors in QCD at Order $\alpha_s$},
  author = {Claudio Corianò and Stefano Lionetti and Dario Melle and Leonardo Torcellini},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2603.24303},
  year   = {2026}
}

Comments

15 pages, 3 figures. Presented at Corfu Summer Institute 2025 Corfu, Greece