Gravitational form factors and nucleon spin structure

Nucleon scattering by the classical gravitational field is described by the gravitational (energy-momentum tensor) form factors (GFFs), which also control the partition of nucleon spin between the total angular momenta of quarks and gluons. The equivalence principle (EP) for spin dynamics results in the identically zero anomalous gravitomagnetic moment, which is the straightforward analog of its electromagnetic counterpart. The extended EP (ExEP) describes its (approximate) validity separately for quarks and gluons and, in turn, results in equal partition of the momentum and total angular momentum. It is violated in quantum electrodynamics and perturbative quantum chromodynamics (QCD), but may be restored in nonperturbative QCD because of confinement and spontaneous chiral symmetry breaking, which is supported by models and lattice QCD calculations. It may, in principle, be checked by extracting the generalized parton distributions from hard exclusive processes. The EP for spin-1 hadrons is also manifested in inclusive processes (deep inelastic scattering and the Drell–Yan process) in sum rules for tensor structure functions and parton distributions. The ExEP may originate in either gravity-proof confinement or in the closeness of the GFF to its asymptotic values in relation to the mediocrity principle. The GFFs in time-like regions reveal some similarity between inflation and annihilation.