Operator Relations for Gravitational Form Factors

Abstract

The form factors for the hadron matrix element of the QCD energy-momentum tensor not only describe the coupling of the hadron with a graviton as the ``gravitational form factors'', but also serve as unique quantities for describing the shape inside the hadron reflecting dynamics of quarks and gluons, such as the internal shear forces acting on the quarks/gluons and their pressure distributions. We consider the gravitational form factors for a hadron, in particular, for a (pseudo)scalar hadron and for the nucleon. We derive and clarify the relations satisfied by the gravitational form factors as direct consequences of the symmetries and the equations of motion in QCD, and connections to the generalized parton distributions. Our results reveal that the gravitational form factors are related to the higher-twist quark-gluon correlation effects inside the hadrons and also to QCD trace anomaly.