Can we extract the pion electromagnetic form factor from a t-channel diagram only?

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that the pion electromagnetic form factor can be extracted using only a t-channel diagram and recent electroproduction data, confirming the dominance of this process at specific kinematics.

Contribution

It shows that a simple t-channel diagram suffices to extract the pion form factor, providing a new constraint for phenomenological models and confirming its dominance in the process.

Findings

The t-channel diagram dominates at the studied kinematics.

The extracted pion radius is 0.672 fm.

Results agree with previous models and analyses.

Abstract

We show that we are able to extract the pion electromagnetic form factor by using the recent charged pion electroproduction data from JLab and a simple t-channel diagram. For this purpose we have performed the Q2-independent and dependent analyses. The result of the first analysis is in good agreement with those of previous works and fit the Maris and Tandy model as well as the monopole parameterization which describes a pion radius of 0.672 fm. The result of the second analysis corroborates the findings in the first analysis. Our findings therefore provide a direct proof that at the given kinematics the t-channel diagram really dominates the process. This could also set a new constraint to the phenomenological models that try to describe the process.