Conformal Symmetry and Pion Form Factor: Soft and Hard Contributions

Abstract

We discuss a constraint of conformal symmetry in the analysis of the pion form factor. The usual power-law behavior of the form factor obtained in the perturbative QCD analysis can also be attained by taking negligible quark masses in the nonperturbative quark model analysis, confirming the recent AdS/CFT correspondence. We analyze the transition from soft to hard contributions in the pion form factor considering a momentum-dependent dynamical quark mass from a nonnegligible constituent quark mass at low momentum region to a negligible current quark mass at high momentum region. We find a correlation between the shape of nonperturbative quark distribution amplitude and the amount of soft and hard contributions to the pion form factor.