Electric, magnetic, and quadrupole form factors and charge radii of vector mesons: From light to heavy sectors in a contact interaction

We present a detailed survey of electric, magnetic, and quadrupole form factors of light and heavy spin-1 vector mesons. It complements our analogous analysis of the electromagnetic form factors of pseudoscalar and scalar mesons reported earlier. Our formalism is based upon the Schwinger-Dyson equations treatment of a vector <a:math xmlns:a="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><a:mo>×</a:mo></a:math> vector contact interaction and the Bethe-Salpeter equation description of relativistic two-body bound states. We compute the form factors, associated moments, and charge radii, comparing these quantities to earlier theoretical studies and experimental results if and when possible. We also investigate the quark-mass dependence of the charge radii and find the anticipated hierarchy such that it decreases with increasing dressed quark masses. In addition, our analysis shows that the magnetic moment is independent of the mass of the light and heavy mesons. Our results agree with most measurements reported earlier, finding a negative quadrupole moment, implying the charge distribution is oblate. Published by the American Physical Society 2024