Gravitational Form Factors of the Proton from Lattice QCD

Abstract

The gravitational form factors (GFFs) of a hadron encode fundamental aspects of its structure, including its shape and size as defined from, e.g., its energy density. This Letter presents a determination of the flavor decomposition of the GFFs of the proton from lattice QCD, in the kinematic region 0≤−t≤2  GeV2. The decomposition into up-, down-, strange-quark, and gluon contributions provides first-principles constraints on the role of each constituent in generating key proton structure observables, such as its mechanical radius, mass radius, and D term. Published by the American Physical Society 2024