Axial nucleon and nucleon to Δ form factors and the Goldberger-Treiman relations from lattice QCD

Abstract

We evaluate the nucleon axial form factor, GA(q2), and induced pseudoscalar form factor, Gp(q2), as well as the pion-nucleon form factor, GπNN(q2), in lattice QCD. We also evaluate the corresponding nucleon to Δ transition form factors, C5A(q2) and C6A(q2), and the pion-nucleon-Δ form factor GπNΔ(q2). The nucleon form factors are evaluated in the quenched theory and with two degenerate flavors of dynamical Wilson fermions. The nucleon to Δ form factors, besides Wilson fermions, are evaluated using domain wall valence fermions with staggered sea quark configurations for pion masses as low as about 350 MeV. Using these form factors, together with an evaluation of the renormalized quark mass, we investigate the validity of the diagonal and nondiagonal Goldberger-Treiman relations. The ratios GπNΔ(q2)/ GπNN(q2) and 2C5A(q2)/GA(q2) are constant as a function of the momentum transfer squared and show almost no dependence on the quark mass. We confirm equality of these two ratios consistent with the Goldberger-Treiman relations extracting a mean value of 1.61(2). © 2007 The American Physical Society.