Perturbative QCD analysis of the nucleon's Pauli form factor F2(Q2).

We perform a perturbative QCD analysis of the nucleon's Pauli form factor F2(Q2) in the asymptotically large Q2 limit. We find that the leading contribution to F2(Q2) has a 1/Q6 power behavior, consistent with the well-known result in the literature. Its coefficient depends on the leading- and subleading-twist light-cone wave functions of the nucleon, the latter describing the quarks with one unit of orbital angular momentum. We also derive at the logarithmic accuracy the asymptotic scaling F2(Q2)/F(1)(Q2) approximately (log2Q2/Lambda2)/Q2 which describes recent Jefferson Lab data well.