Speaker
Description
One of the most puzzling aspects of the Standard Model is that the overwhelming majority of the mass of hadronic systems arises from massless and nearly massless objects. From the little that we do understand, we know that mass generation is intricately connected to the internal structure of hadronic systems. Somewhat counter intuitively, it is some of the lightest hadronic objects, the charged pion and kaon, that may be able to fill in the missing piece of the puzzle. One potential window into the internal structure of the charged pion and kaon is their elastic electromagnetic form factors, $F_{\pi}(Q^{2})$ and $F_{K}(Q^{2})$. Electromagnetic form factors are fundamental quantities which describe the spatial distribution of partons within a hadron. Determining these form factors, as well as how they vary with $Q^{2}$, is an important step on our road to understanding the internal structure of these objects.
Recently measured data at JLab has the potential to push the $Q^{2}$ reach of these measurements is deep into unexplored territory. These cutting edge measurements could help disentangle the mass generation puzzle of QCD. In this talk, I will outline the current progress on these pion and kaon form factor measurements. I will also discuss the opportunities and challenges of further pion and kaon form factor measurements at future facilities, such as the EIC.
