Nucleon electromagnetic form factors from lattice QCD

Abstract

We evaluate the isovector nucleon electromagnetic form factors in quenched and unquenched QCD on the lattice using Wilson fermions. In the quenched theory we use a lattice of spatial size 3 fm at β=6.0 enabling us to reach low momentum transfers and a lowest pion mass of about 400 MeV. In the unquenched theory we use two degenerate flavors of dynamical Wilson fermions on a lattice of spatial size 1.9 fm at β=5.6 and lowest pion mass of about 380 MeV enabling comparison with the results obtained in the quenched theory. that unquenching effects are small for the pion masses considered in this work. We compare our lattice results to the isovector part of the experimentally measured form factors. © 2006 The American Physical Society.