Nucleon Transition Form Factors and New Perspectives

Abstract. The status of the electro-excitation program to study baryon resonances at Jefferson Lab will be exemplified by the most recent results on resonance parameters and transition form factors in single and double-pion production. These results demonstrate that the separation of resonance and background contributions and therefore the extraction of the electro-coupling amplitudes of resonances become easier and cleaner at higher four-momentum transfers (Q2). Furthermore, the double-pion in comparison to the single-pion channel shows a higher sensitivity to higher excited resonances and a distinctly different Q2 dependence of the background amplitudes. The combined analysis of the single- and double-pion data reduces model dependent uncertainties significantly, which allows us to extract the resonant electro-coupling amplitudes with an unprecedented quality. 1