This paper describes a precise measurement of electron scattering off the proton at momentum transfers of 0.003 Q 2 1 GeV 2 . The average point-to-point error of the cross sections in this experiment is ∼0.37%. These data are used for a coherent new analysis together with all world data of unpolarized and polarized electron scattering from the very smallest to the highest momentum transfers so far measured. The extracted electric and magnetic form factors provide new insight into their exact shape, deviating from the classical dipole form, and of structure on top of this gross shape. The data reaching very low Q 2 values are used for a new determination of the electric and magnetic radii. An empirical determination of the two-photon-exchange correction is presented. The implications of this correction on the radii and the question of a directly visible signal of the pion cloud are addressed.

The protons and neutrons in a nucleus can form strongly correlated nucleon pairs. Scattering experiments, where a proton is knocked-out of the nucleus with high momentum transfer and high missing momentum, show that in 12 C the neutron-proton pairs are nearly twenty times as prevalent as proton-proton pairs and, by inference, neutron-neutron pairs. This difference between the types of pairs is due to the nature of the strong force and has implications for understanding cold dense nuclear systems such as neutron stars.