We present the first systematic study of higher-twist light-cone distribution amplitudes of the nucleon in QCD. We find that the valence three-quark state is described at small transverse separations by eight independent distribution amplitudes. One of them is leading twist-3, three distributions are twist-4 and twist-5, respectively, and one is twist-6. A complete set of distribution amplitudes is constructed, which satisfies equations of motion and constraints that follow from conformal expansion. Nonperturbative input parameters are estimated from QCD sum rules.

We argue that soft non-factorisable terms give a significant contribution to the baryon form factors at intermediate momentum transfers and set up a framework for the calculation of such terms in the light-cone sum rule approach. Among them, contributions of three-quark states with different helicity structure compared to the leading twist prove to be the most important. The leading-order sum rules are derived and confronted with the experimental data.

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