Nucleon Electromagnetic Form Factors
Although nucleons account for nearly all the visible mass in the universe, they have a complicated structure that is still incompletely understood. The first indication that nucleons have an internal structure, was the measurement of the proton magnetic moment by Frisch and Stern (1933) which revealed a large deviation from the value expected for a point-like Dirac particle. The investigation of the spatial structure of the nucleon, resulting in the first quantitative measurement of the proton charge radius, was initiated by the HEPL (Stanford) experiments in the 1950s, for which Hofstadter was awarded the 1961 Nobel prize. The first indication of a non-zero neutron charge distribution was obtained by scattering thermal neutrons off atomic electrons. The recent revival of its experimental study through the operational implementation of novel instrumentation has instigated a strong theoretical interest. Nucleon electro-magnetic form factors (EMFFs) are optimally studied through the exchange of a virtual photon, in elastic electron-nucleon scattering. The momentum transferred to the nucleon by the virtual photon can be selected to probe different scales of the nucleon, from integral properties such as the charge radius to scaling properties of its internal constituents. Polarization instrumentation, polarized beams and targets, and the measurement of the polarization of the recoiling nucleon have been essential in the accurate separation of the charge and magnetic form factors and in studies of the elusive neutron charge form factor.
- Research Organization:
- Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility (TJNAF), Newport News, VA (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Energy Research (ER) (US)
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC05-84ER40150
- OSTI ID:
- 834525
- Report Number(s):
- JLAB-PHY-04-300; DOE/ER/40150-2972; TRN: US0407237
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: SUSSP58, St. Andrews, Scotland (GB), 08/30/2004--09/01/2004; Other Information: PBD: 1 Aug 2004
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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