Overview of nucleon structure

TL;DR

This paper reviews experimental and theoretical approaches to understanding nucleon structure, highlighting the use of light-front descriptions and recent findings on charge densities and nucleon shape.

Contribution

It introduces a light-front framework to interpret various scattering experiments and reveals new insights into the nucleon's non-spherical shape and charge distributions.

Findings

Neutron's central charge density is negative.

Proton's magnetization density extends further than charge density.

Nucleon shape is non-spherical as shown by spin-dependent densities.

Abstract

The quark-gluon properties of the nucleon are probed by a host of recent and planned experiments. These involve elastic, deep-inelastic, semi-inclusive deep-inelastic (SIDIS), and deeply-virtual Compton scattering. A light-front description is naturally applied to interpret all of these processes. The advantages of this approach will be discussed The talk will then focus on the transverse charge and magnetization densities of the nucleons and the use of SIDIS to reveal the non-spherical shape of the nucleon. We find that the central charge density of the neutron is negative, that the magnetization density of the proton extends further in space than the charge distribution, and that the shape of the nucleon, as measured by the spin-dependent density, is not spherical.