Heavy quark contribution to the electromagnetic properties of the nucleon

TL;DR

This paper investigates the role of intrinsic heavy quarks in the electromagnetic properties of nucleons using light-front holographic QCD, providing new nonperturbative predictions for heavy quark contributions to nucleon form factors.

Contribution

It extends light-front holographic QCD to include heavy quark effects, offering a novel nonperturbative framework for nucleon structure analysis involving heavy quarks.

Findings

Predicted heavy quark contributions to nucleon form factors.

Analyzed heavy quark-antiquark asymmetry in nucleons.

Derived electromagnetic properties influenced by heavy quarks.

Abstract

Quantum chromodynamics (QCD) predicts the existence of both nonperturbative intrinsic and perturbative extrinsic heavy quark contributions to the fundamental structure of hadrons. The existence of intrinsic charm at the 3-standard-deviation level in the proton has recently been established from structure function measurements by the NNPDF Collaboration. Here we revisit the physics of intrinsic heavy quarks using light-front holographic QCD (LFHQCD) - a novel comprehensive approach to hadron structure which provides detailed predictions for dynamical properties of the hadrons, such as form factors, distribution amplitudes, structure functions, etc. We will extend this nonperturbative light-front QCD approach to study the heavy quark-antiquark contribution to the electromagnetic properties of nucleon. Our framework is based on a study of the eigenfunctions of the QCD light-front Hamiltonian, the frame-independent light-front wave functions (LFWFs) underlying hadron dynamics. We analyze the heavy quark content in the proton, induced either directly by the nonperturbative $|uud+Q\bar Q\rangle$ Fock state or by the $|uud+g\rangle$ Fock state, where the gluon splits into a heavy quark-antiquark pair. The specific form of these LFWFs are derived from LFHQCD. Using these LFWFs, we construct light-front representations for the heavy quark-antiquark asymmetry, the electromagnetic form factors of nucleons induced by heavy quarks, including their magnetic moments and radii.