Nucleon form factors: the space-time connection

TL;DR

This paper uses analyticity and new experimental data to derive sum rules for nucleon form factors, testing their consistency with perturbative QCD predictions in unmeasured energy regions.

Contribution

It introduces a method combining space-like and time-like data to analyze nucleon form factors and verifies their asymptotic behavior against QCD predictions.

Findings

Sum rules derived from analyticity relate space-like and time-like form factors.

New time-like data enables separation of electric and magnetic form factors.

Proton magnetic form factor behavior aligns with perturbative QCD predictions.

Abstract

Analyticity of nucleon form factors allows to derive sum rules which, using space-like and time-like data as input, can give unique information about behaviors in energy regions not experimentally accessible. Taking advantage from new time-like data on proton-antiproton differential cross section and hence the possibility to separate electric and magnetic form factors also in the time-like region, we verify the consistency of the asymptotic behavior predicted by the perturbative QCD for the proton magnetic form factor.