English

Shapes of the Proton

Nuclear Theory 2009-11-10 v2 High Energy Physics - Phenomenology Nuclear Experiment

Abstract

A model proton wave function, constructed using Poincare invariance, and constrained by recent electromagnetic form factor data, is used to study the shape of the proton. Spin-dependent quark densities are defined as matrix elements of density operators in proton states of definite spin-polarization, and shown to have an infinite variety of non-spherical shapes. For high momentum quarks with spin parallel to that of the proton, the shape resembles that of a peanut, but for quarks with anti-parallel spin the shape is that of a bagel.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.nucl-th/0304076,
  title  = {Shapes of the Proton},
  author = {Gerald A. Miller},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:nucl-th/0304076},
  year   = {2009}
}

Comments

8 pages, 5 figures, to be submitted to Phys. Rev. C This corrects a few typos and explains some further connections with experiments

R2 v1 2026-07-22T18:29:20.077Z