Interpretation of the flavor dependence of nucleon form factors in a generalized parton distribution model

Abstract

We give an interpretation of the $u$ and $d$ quarks contributions to the nucleon electromagnetic form factors for values of the four-momentum transfer in the multi-GeV region where flavor separated data have been recently made available. The data show, in particular, a suppression of $d$ quarks with respect to $u$ quarks at large momentum transfer. This trend can be explained using a reggeized diquark model calculation of generalized parton distributions, thus providing a correlation between momentum and coordinate spaces, both of which are necessary to interpret the partonic substructure of the form factors. We extend our discussion to the second moments of generalized parton distributions which are believed to contribute to partonic angular momentum.