Magnetization screening from gluonic currents and scaling law violation in the ratio of magnetic form factors for neutron and proton

Abstract

The ratio ${\mu_p}G_E^p/G_M^p$ exhibits a decrease for four-momentum transfer Q^2 increasing beyond 1 GeV^2 indicating different spatial distributions for charge and for magnetization inside the proton. One-gluon exchange currents can explain this behaviour. The SU(6) breaking induced by gluonic currents predicts furthermore that the ratio of neutron to proton magnetic form factors ${\mu_p}G_M^n/{\mu_n}G_M^p$ falls with increasing Q^2. We find that the experimental data are consistent with our expectations of an almost linear decrease of the ratio ${\mu_p}G_M^n/{\mu_n}G_M^p$ with increasing Q^2, supporting the statement that the spatial distributions of magnetization are different for protons and for neutrons.