Electromagnetic Form Factors of the Nucleon in the Chiral Soliton Model

Abstract

Several years ago it was pointed out that the chiral soliton model allows naturally for satisfactory agreement with the experimentally well-determined proton magnetic form factor $G_M^p$. The corresponding result for the proton electric form factor at that time was in serious disagreement with the data because the calculated $G_E^p$ showed as a rather stable feature a zero for $q^2$ near 10 (GeV/c)$^2$ which was hard to avoid for reasonable choices of parameters, while the data at that time showed no indication for such a behaviour. Meanwhile, new data have confirmed those $G_E^p$ predictions in a remarkable way, so it appears worthwhile to have another look at that model, especially concerning its flexibility with repect to the electric neutron formfactor $G_E^n$ while trying to maintain the satisfactory results for the proton form factors.