Electromagnetic form factors from the fifth dimension


Abstract in English

We analyse various $U(1)_{EM}$ form factors of mesons at strong coupling in an $mathcal{N}=2$ flavored version of $mathcal{N}=4$ $SYM$ which becomes conformal in the UV. The quark mass breaks the conformal symmetry in the IR and generates a mass gap. In the appropriate limit, the gravity dual is described in terms of probe $D7$-branes in $AdS_5times S^5$. By studying the $D7$ fluctuations we find the suitable terms in a meson effective theory which allow us to compute the desired form factors, namely the $gammapirho$ and $gamma f_0rho$ transition form factors. At large $q^2$ we find perfect agreement with the naive parton model counting, which is a consequence of the conformal nature of both QCD and our model in the UV. By using the same tools, we can compute the $gamma^*gamma^*pi$ form factor. However this channel is more subtle and comparisons to the QCD result are more involved.

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