Nucleon Electromagnetic Form Factors at Large Momentum Transfer from Lattice QCD

Abstract

Abstract Nucleon form factors at large momentum transfer are important for understanding the transition from nonperturbative to perturbative QCD and have been the focus of experiment and phenomenology. We calculate proton and neutron electromagnetic form factors

$$G_{E,M}(Q^2)$$

G

E , M

(

Q 2

)

from first principles using nonperturbative methods of lattice QCD. We have accumulated large Monte Carlo statistics to study form factors up to momentum transfer

$$Q^2\lesssim 8\text { GeV}^2$$

Q 2

≲ 8

GeV 2

with a range of lattice spacings as well as quark masses that approach the physical point. In this paper, results of initial analyses are presented and compared to experiment, and potential sources of systematic uncertainty are discussed.