Lattice Charge Overlap: Towards the Elastic Limit

Abstract

A numerical investigation of time-separated charge overlap measurements is carried out for the pion in the context of lattice QCD using smeared Wilson fermions. The evolution of the charge distribution function is examined and the expected asymptotic time behavior $\sim e^{-(E_{q}-m_π)t}$, where $t$ represents the charge density relative time separation, is clearly visible in the Fourier transform. Values of the pion form factor are extracted using point-to-smeared correlation functions and are seen to be consistent with the expected monopole form from vector dominance. The implications of these results for hadron structure calculations is briefly discussed.