Determination of proton electromagnetic form factors from DVCS measurements
Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: We present a detailed analysis of the proton electromagnetic form factors (FFs) using exclusive photon leptoproduction (EP) data in kinematic regions where the Bethe-Heitler (BH) contribution dominates the deeply virtual Compton scattering (DVCS) cross section. By exploiting the sensitivity of the BH amplitude to the Dirac and Pauli FFs, we extract F 1 ( t ) , F 2 ( t ) , and the corresponding Sachs FFs within several fitting scenarios based on dipole and P -pole parametrizations, and evaluate the charge and magnetic radii of the proton. In this fitting scenario, we show that EP measurements in the range 0.11 < | t | < 0.45 GeV 2 can provide constraints on F 1 ( t ) , while offering limited sensitivity to F 2 ( t ) . The extracted charge radius values tend to be smaller than those obtained from traditional elastic electron-proton scattering measurements and are consistent, within uncertainties, with recent high-precision PRad results. These findings indicate that EP measurements, especially when covering smaller values of | t | , can serve as a complementary tool for determining the proton electromagnetic structure and may contribute to ongoing efforts to better understand the proton charge radius. The methodology developed here provides a framework for future combined analyses of EP and elastic electron-proton scattering data which enables a unified determination of the nucleon FFs.
Language: English
Subfield: Nuclear and High Energy Physics
Field: Physics and Astronomy
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
Funder: CERN
OpenAlex ID: W7133335990