Proton and neutron electromagnetic form factors from lattice QCD in the continuum limit

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Main Authors: Alexandrou, Constantia, Bacchio, Simone, Koutsou, Giannis, Prasad, Bhavna, Spanoudes, Gregoris
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Alexandrou, Constantia
Bacchio, Simone
Koutsou, Giannis
Prasad, Bhavna
Spanoudes, Gregoris
author_facet Alexandrou, Constantia
Bacchio, Simone
Koutsou, Giannis
Prasad, Bhavna
Spanoudes, Gregoris
contents We compute the electromagnetic form factors of the proton and neutron using lattice QCD. We employ $N_\mathrm{f}$=2+1+1 twisted mass clover-improved fermions with quark masses tuned to their physical values. Three ensembles with lattice spacings of $a$=0.080 fm, 0.068 fm, and 0.057 fm, and approximately the same physical volume allow us to obtain the continuum limit directly at the physical pion mass. For each ensemble, we use several values of the sink-source time separation, ranging from 0.5 fm to 1.5 fm, to allow for a thorough analysis of excited state effects via multi-state fits. The disconnected contributions are also analyzed using high statistics combined with techniques to mitigate stochastic noise in the estimation of the fermion loop. These techniques include low-mode deflation, dilution in the color and spin components, and hierarchical probing. We study the momentum transfer dependence of the form factors using the $z$-expansion and dipole Ansätze, thereby enabling the extraction of the electric and magnetic radii and the magnetic moments, as well as the Zemach and Friar radii in the continuum limit. Results for the proton and neutron electric and magnetic mean square radii are $\sqrt{\langle r_E^2\rangle^p} = 0.860(38)(23)$ fm, $\langle r_E^2\rangle^n = -0.147(48)$ fm$^2$, $\sqrt{\langle r_M^2\rangle^p} = 0.870(53)(15)$ fm and $\sqrt{\langle r_M^2\rangle^n} = 0.913(67)(19)$ fm, and for the proton and neutron magnetic moments $μ^p=2.849(92)(52)$ and $μ^n=-1.819(76)(29)$, respectively. In all cases, the first error is statistical and the second systematic, where the latter includes an estimate of the error from the fits to the momentum dependence of the form factors and from the continuum extrapolation.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2507_20910
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Proton and neutron electromagnetic form factors from lattice QCD in the continuum limit
Alexandrou, Constantia
Bacchio, Simone
Koutsou, Giannis
Prasad, Bhavna
Spanoudes, Gregoris
High Energy Physics - Lattice
We compute the electromagnetic form factors of the proton and neutron using lattice QCD. We employ $N_\mathrm{f}$=2+1+1 twisted mass clover-improved fermions with quark masses tuned to their physical values. Three ensembles with lattice spacings of $a$=0.080 fm, 0.068 fm, and 0.057 fm, and approximately the same physical volume allow us to obtain the continuum limit directly at the physical pion mass. For each ensemble, we use several values of the sink-source time separation, ranging from 0.5 fm to 1.5 fm, to allow for a thorough analysis of excited state effects via multi-state fits. The disconnected contributions are also analyzed using high statistics combined with techniques to mitigate stochastic noise in the estimation of the fermion loop. These techniques include low-mode deflation, dilution in the color and spin components, and hierarchical probing. We study the momentum transfer dependence of the form factors using the $z$-expansion and dipole Ansätze, thereby enabling the extraction of the electric and magnetic radii and the magnetic moments, as well as the Zemach and Friar radii in the continuum limit. Results for the proton and neutron electric and magnetic mean square radii are $\sqrt{\langle r_E^2\rangle^p} = 0.860(38)(23)$ fm, $\langle r_E^2\rangle^n = -0.147(48)$ fm$^2$, $\sqrt{\langle r_M^2\rangle^p} = 0.870(53)(15)$ fm and $\sqrt{\langle r_M^2\rangle^n} = 0.913(67)(19)$ fm, and for the proton and neutron magnetic moments $μ^p=2.849(92)(52)$ and $μ^n=-1.819(76)(29)$, respectively. In all cases, the first error is statistical and the second systematic, where the latter includes an estimate of the error from the fits to the momentum dependence of the form factors and from the continuum extrapolation.
title Proton and neutron electromagnetic form factors from lattice QCD in the continuum limit
topic High Energy Physics - Lattice
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.20910