Time- and Spacelike Nucleon Electromagnetic Form Factors beyond Relativistic Constituent Quark Models

For the first time, a phenomenological analysis of the experimental electromagnetic form factors of the nucleon, both in the timelike and spacelike regions, is performed by taking into account the effects of nonvalence components in the nucleon state, within a light-front framework. Our model, based on suitable Ansatzes for the nucleon Bethe-Salpeter amplitude and a microscopic version of the well-known Vector Meson Dominance model, has only four free parameters (determined by the spacelike data with $chi^2/datum sim 1.7$), and yields a nice description of the experimental electromagnetic form factors in the physical region in the range $-30 (GeV/c)^2 < q^2 < 20 (GeV/c)^2$, except for the neutron one in the timelike region. Valuable information can be gained in the timelike region on possible missing Vector Mesons around $q^2 sim 4.5 (GeV/c)^2$ and $q^2 sim 8.0 (GeV/c)^2$

Light-front Ward-Takahashi Identity for Two-Fermion Systems

We propose a three-dimensional electromagnetic current operator within light-front dynamics that satisfies a light-front Ward-Takahashi identity for two-fermion systems. The light-front current operator is obtained by a quasi-potential reduction of the four-dimensional current operator and acts on the light-front valence component of bound or scattering states. A relation between the light-front valence wave function and the four-dimensional Bethe-Salpeter amplitude both for bound or scattering states is also derived, such that the matrix elements of the four-dimensional current operator can be fully recovered from the corresponding light-front ones. The light-front current operator can be perturbatively calculated through a quasi-potential expansion, and the divergence of the proposed current satisfies a Ward-Takahashi identity at any given order of the expansion. In the quasi-potential expansion the instantaneous terms of the fermion propagator are accounted for by the effective interaction and two-body currents. We exemplify our theoretical construction in the Yukawa model in the ladder approximation, investigating in detail the current operator at the lowest nontrivial order of the quasi-potential expansion of the Bethe-Salpeter equation. The explicit realization of the light-front form of the Ward-Takahashi identity is verified. We also show the relevance of instantaneous terms and of the pair contribution to the two-body current and the Ward-Takahashi identity.