Chiral structure of nucleon gravitational form factors

Abstract

We study the low momentum behavior of nucleon gravitational form factors in the framework of the heavy baryon chiral perturbation theory. At zero recoil they determine the momentum and spin apportion between nucleon constituents. Our result provides an insight into the response of the nucleon's pion cloud to an external weak gravitational field and establishes a theoretical framework for extrapolation of experimental and lattice data on the nucleon form factors to zero momentum transfer. We also discuss form factors corresponding to higher-rank tensor currents related to the moments of generalized parton distributions.