Spectral functions of nucleon form factors: Three-pion continua at low energies

Abstract

We study the imaginary parts of the isoscalar electromagnetic and isovector axial form factors of the nucleon close to the $3\pi$-threshold in covariant baryon chiral perturbation theory. At the two-loop level, the contributions arising from leading and next-to-leading order chiral $\pi N$-vertices, as well as pion-induced excitations of virtual $\Delta (1232)$-isobars, are calculated. It is found that the heavy baryon treatment overestimates substantially these $3\pi$-continua. From a phenomenological analysis, that includes the narrow $\omega (783)$-resonance or the broad $a_1$-resonance, one can recognize small windows near threshold, where chiral $3\pi$-dynamics prevails. However, in the case of the isoscalar electromagnetic form factors $G_{E,M}^s(t)$, the radiative correction provided by the ${\pi }^0\gamma$-intermediate state turns out to be of similar size.

12 pages, 9 figures, accepted for publication in Eur. Phys. J. A

References in corpus (5)

• Electromagnetic excitation of the Delta(1232)-resonance
• The size of the proton - closing in on the radius puzzle
• Theoretical Constraints and Systematic Effects in the Determination of the Proton Form Factors
• On the pi pi continuum in the nucleon form factors and the proton radius puzzle
• The reaction pi N -> pi pi N in chiral effective field theory with explicit Delta(1232) degrees of freedom

Cited by in corpus (2)

• Dispersion-theoretical analysis of the electromagnetic form factors of the nucleon: Past, present and future
• Chiral constraints on the isoscalar electromagnetic spectral functions of the nucleon from leading order vector meson couplings