Mechanical form factors and densities of nonrelativistic fermions
The hadron physics community has been actively debating the interpretation of so-called mechanical properties of hadrons. Nonrelativistic quantum-mechanical systems like the hydrogen atom have been appealed to in these debates as analogies. Since such appeals are likely to continue, it is important to have Galilei-covariant expressions for matrix elements of the energy-momentum tensor. In this work, I obtain Galilei-covariant breakdowns of such matrix elements into mechanical form factors, with a special focus on spin-half states. I additionally study the spatial densities associated with these form factors, using the pilot wave interpretation to guide their breakdown into contributions from internal structure and from quantum-mechanical effects such as wave packet dispersion. For completeness, I also obtain nonrelativistic Breit frame densities.
Authors
- Adam Freese (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0688-4121)
Institutions
- Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility (US)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Physical review. D/Physical review. D.
- Published
- 2025-08-29
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1103/k3hd-3lqv
- Citations
- 5
- Primary Topic
- Quantum Chromodynamics and Particle Interactions
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 9.35
Funders
- U.S. Department of Energy
- Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility