Pions in the light-cone nucleon and electromagnetic form factors

The light-cone Fock-state decomposition of the nucleon involves pion-quark core (π′N′ andπ′Δ′) components. The size of the quark core is at present of special importance for the analysis of the onset of colour transparency in the A(e,e′p) reactions. With the light-coneNπ′N′ andNπ′Δ′ vertex functions deduced from experimental data on high-energy proton fragmentation into nucleons and isobars, we evaluate the effect of the pionic cloud on the electromagnetic form factors of nucleons. We find the quark core radius to be about 10% smaller than the nucleon's radius. Analysis of the renormalization of the total nucleon-nucleon cross section for the presence of the pionic cloud suggests a similar core radius.