In this work, we report a novel technique in lattice QCD for studying the high momentum-transfer region of nucleon form factors. These calculations could give important theoretical input to experiments, such as those of JLab's 12-GeV program and studies of nucleon deformation. There is an extensive history of form-factor calculations on the lattice, primarily with ground states for both the initial and final state. However, determining form factors at large momentum transfer (Q2) has been difficult due to large statistical and systematic errors in this regime. We study the nucleon form factors using three pion masses with both quenched and 2+1-flavor anisotropic lattice configurations with Q2 as large as 6GeV2. These form factors are further processed to obtain transverse charge and magnetization densities across 2-dimensional impact-parameter space. Our approach can be applied to isotropic lattices and lattices with smaller lattice spacing to calculate even larger-Q2 form factors.
@article{arxiv.1005.0799,
title = {Lattice Calculations of Nucleon Electromagnetic Form Factors at Large Momentum Transfer},
author = {Huey-Wen Lin and Saul D. Cohen and Robert G. Edwards and Kostas Orginos and David G. Richards},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1005.0799},
year = {2010}
}