Quark Structure of the Nucleon and Angular Asymmetry of Proton-Neutron Hard Elastic Scattering

We investigate an asymmetry in the angular distribution of hard elastic proton-neutron scattering with respect to the 90° center of mass scattering angle and demonstrate that it’s magnitude is related to the helicity-isospin symmetry of the quark wave function of the nucleon. Our estimate of the asymmetry within the quark-interchange model of hard scattering demonstrates that the quark wave function of a nucleon based on the exact SU(6) symmetry predicts an angular asymmetry opposite to that of experimental observations. We found that the quark wave function based on the diquark picture of the nucleon produces a correct asymmetry. Comparison with the data allowed us to show that the vector diquarks contribute around 10% in the nucleon wave function and they are in negative phase relative to the scalar diquarks. These observations are essential in constraining QCD models of a nucleon.