Nucleon Structure Functions Research Articles

The EMC effect for few-nucleon bound systems in light-front Hamiltonian dynamics

The light-front formalism for a covariant description of the European Muon Collaboration (EMC) effect, already applied to He3, is formally extended to any nucleus, and used for actually calculating the 3H and He4 cases. The realistic and accurate nuclear description of few-nucleon bound systems, obtained with both phenomenological and chiral potentials, has been properly combined with the Poincaré covariance and macroscopic locality, automatically satisfying both number of particles and momentum sum rule. While retaining the on-mass-shell nucleon structure functions, one is then able to predict a sizable EMC effect for He4, as already observed for He3. Moreover, the impact on the EMC effect of both i) the short-range correlations, such as those generated by modern nuclear interactions, and ii) the ratio between the neutron and proton structure functions has been studied. The short-range correlations generated by retaining only the standard nuclear degrees of freedom act on the depth of the minimum in the EMC ratio, while the uncertainties linked to the ratio of neutron to proton structure functions are found to be very small. These light-front results facilitate ascribing deviations from experimental data due to genuine QCD effects, not included in a standard nuclear description, and initiating unbiased investigations.

Constraining the low-x structure of nuclei with LHCb

The LHCb detector’s forward geometry provides unprecedented access to the very low regions of Bjorken x inside the nucleon. With full particle ID and a fast DAQ, LHCb is able to fully reconstruct plentiful charged particles and neutral mesons, as well as relatively rare probes such as heavy quarks, providing a unique set of constraints on nucleon structure functions. This contribution will discuss recent LHCb measurements sensitive to the low-x structure of nucleons, and discuss the impact of recent LHCb measurements that dramatically reduce nPDF uncertainties.

Electromagnetic form factors for nucleons in short-range correlations

Recent experimental studies have led to the suggestion that short-range correlations may be a major contributor to the nuclear EMC effect. This hypothesis requires that the structure function for nucleons involved in short-range correlations should be heavily suppressed compared to that of a free nucleon. Based on calculations performed within an AdS/QCD motivated, light-front quark-diquark model, we find that this large suppression of the nucleon structure function leads to a strong suppression of the nucleon elastic form factors.

Effect of symmetry breaking of polarized light sea quarks on the nucleon and nuclear structure functions, and sum rules

Effect of symmetry breaking of polarized light sea quarks on the nucleon and nuclear structure functions, and sum rules

Physical implications of the extrapolation and statistical bootstrap of nucleon structure function ratios F2nF2p for mirror nuclei He3 and H3

A nuclear physics example of statistical bootstrap is used on the MARATHON nucleon structure function ratio data in the quark momentum fraction regions ${x}_{B}\ensuremath{\rightarrow}0$ and ${x}_{B}\ensuremath{\rightarrow}1$. The extrapolated ${F}_{2}$ ratio as quark momentum fraction ${x}_{B}\ensuremath{\rightarrow}1$ is $\frac{{F}_{2}^{n}}{{F}_{2}^{p}}\ensuremath{\rightarrow}0.4\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}0.05$ and this value is compared to theoretical predictions. The extrapolated ratio when ${x}_{B}\ensuremath{\rightarrow}0$ favors the simple model of isospin symmetry with the complete dominance of sea quarks at low momentum fraction. At high-${x}_{B}$, the proton quark distribution function ratio $d/u$ is derived from the ${F}_{2}$ ratio and found to be $d/u\ensuremath{\rightarrow}1/6$. Our extrapolated values for both the $\frac{{F}_{2}^{n}}{{F}_{2}^{p}}$ ratio and the $d/u$ parton distribution function ratio are within uncertainties of perturbative QCD values from quark counting, helicity conservation arguments, and a Dyson-Schwinger equation with a contact interaction model. In addition, it is possible to match the statistical bootstrap value to theoretical predictions by allowing two compatible models to act simultaneously in the nucleon wave function. One such example is nucleon wave functions composed of a linear combination of a quark-diquark state and a three-valence quark correlated state with coefficients that combine to give the extrapolated ${F}_{2}$ ratio at ${x}_{B}=1$.

Recent data analysis to revisit the spin structure function of the nucleon in Laplace space

Considering a fixed-flavor number scheme and based on Laplace transformation, we perform leading-order and next-to-leading-order QCD analyses that include world data on polarized structure functions ${g}_{1}$ and ${g}_{2}$. During our analysis, taking the DGLAP evolution equations, we employ the Jacobi polynomials expansion technique. In our recent analysis we utilize the recent available data and consequently include more data than what we did in our previous analysis. We obtain good agreements between our results for the polarized parton densities and nucleon structure functions with all available experimental data and some common parametrization models.

Nuclear medium effects in lepton-nucleus DIS in the region of x≳1

The nuclear medium effects in the nuclear structure functions and differential cross sections in the deep inelastic scattering (DIS) of charged lepton and neutrino from nuclear targets are studied in the region of large $x$ including $x\ge 1$. The nuclear medium effects due to the Fermi motion and the binding energy of nucleons and the nucleon correlations are included using nucleon spectral function calculated in a microscopic field theoretical model. The numerical results for the nuclear structure functions and the cross sections are obtained using the nucleon structure function evaluated at the next-to-next-to-leading order (NNLO) with the Martin-Motylinski-Harland Lang-Thorne (MMHT) parameterization of the nucleonic parton distribution functions (PDFs) and are compared with the available experimental data on electron scattering from the Jefferson Lab (JLab) and SLAC Nuclear Physics Facility (NPAS). In the case of neutrino scattering the results are relevant for understanding the DIS contributions to the recent inclusive cross sections measured by the Main Injector Neutrino ExpeRiment to study v-A interactions (MINERvA) as well as theoretical predictions are made for Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE). The importance of isoscalarity corrections in heavier nuclear targets as well as the effect of the kinematic cut on the CM energy $W$ in defining the DIS region have also been discussed.

Residual mean field model of valence quarks in the nucleon

We develop a non-perturbative model for valence parton distribution functions (PDFs) based on the mean field interactions of valence quarks in the nucleonic interior. The main motivation for the model is to obtain a mean field description of the valence quarks as a baseline to study the short range quark–quark interactions that generate the high x tail of PDFs. The model is based on the separation of the valence three-quark cluster and residual system in the nucleon. Then the nucleon structure function is calculated within the effective light-front diagrammatic approach introducing nonperturbative light-front valence quark and residual wave functions. Within the model a new relation is obtained between the position, x_p, of the peak of xq_V(x) distribution of the valence quark and the effective mass of the residual system, m_R, in the form: x_{p} approx {1over 4} (1-{m_Rover m_N}) at starting Q^2. This relation explains the difference in the peak positions for d- and u-quarks through the expected difference of residual masses for valence d- and u-quark distributions. The parameters of the model are fixed by fitting the calculated valence quark distributions to the phenomenological PDFs. This allowed us to estimate the overall mean field contribution in baryonic and momentum sum rules for valence d- and u-quarks. Finally, the evaluated parameters of the non-perturbative wave functions of valence 3q-cluster and residual system can be used in calculation of other quantities such as nucleon form factors, generalized partonic and transverse momentum distributions.

Parametrization of quark and gluon generalized parton distributions in a dynamical framework

We present a parametrization of the chiral even generalized parton distributions, $H$, $E$, $\stackrel{\texttildelow{}}{H}$, $\stackrel{\texttildelow{}}{E}$, for the quark, antiquark, and gluon, in the perturbative QCD (pQCD)-parton framework. Parametric analytic forms are given as a function of two equivalent sets of variables $x$, $\ensuremath{\xi}$, $t$ (symmetric frame) and $X$, $\ensuremath{\zeta}$, $t$ (asymmetric frame), at an initial scale, ${Q}_{o}^{2}$. In the $X>\ensuremath{\zeta}$ region, a convenient and flexible form is obtained as the product of a Regge term $\ensuremath{\propto}{X}^{\ensuremath{-}\ensuremath{\alpha}+{\ensuremath{\alpha}}^{\ensuremath{'}}t}$, describing the low $X$ behavior, times a spectator model-based functional form depending on various mass parameters; the behavior at $X<\ensuremath{\zeta}$ is determined using the generalized parton distributions symmetry and polynomiality properties. The parameters are constrained using data on the flavor separated nucleon electromagnetic elastic form factors, the axial and pseudoscalar nucleon form factors, and the parton distribution functions from both the deep inelastic unpolarized and polarized nucleon structure functions. For the gluon distributions we use, in particular, constraints provided by recent lattice QCD moments calculations. The parametrization's kinematical range of validity is $0.0001\ensuremath{\le}X\ensuremath{\le}\phantom{\rule{0ex}{0ex}}0.85$, $0.01\ensuremath{\le}\ensuremath{\zeta}\ensuremath{\le}0.85$, $0\ensuremath{\le}\ensuremath{-}t\ensuremath{\le}1\text{ }\text{ }{\mathrm{GeV}}^{2}$, $2\ensuremath{\le}{Q}^{2}\ensuremath{\le}100\text{ }\text{ }{\mathrm{GeV}}^{2}$. With the simultaneous description of the quark, antiquark, and gluon sectors, this parametrization represents a first tool enabling a global QCD analysis of deeply virtual exclusive experiments.

Nuclear medium effects in the deep inelastic ντ/ν¯τ−Ar40 scattering at DUNE energies

The nuclear medium effects are studied in the $\nu_\tau/\bar\nu_\tau$ interactions from nuclei in the deep inelastic scattering (DIS) region and applied to the $^{40}Ar$ nucleus to obtain the scattering cross sections in the energy region of the proposed DUNE experiment. The free nucleon structure functions ($F_{iN}(x,Q^2);~(i=1-5)$) have been calculated at the next-to-leading order (NLO) using Martin-Motylinski-Harland Lang-Thorne 2014 as well as The Coordinated Theoretical-Experimental Project on QCD parameterizations for parton distribution functions (PDFs) and including the effect of perturbative and nonperturbative QCD corrections \cite{Ansari:2020xne}. These free nucleon structure functions are then convoluted with the nucleon spectral function in the nucleus to obtain the nuclear structure functions ($F_{iA}(x,Q^2);~(i=1-5)$). The nucleon spectral function takes into account the Fermi motion and the binding energy of the nucleons as well as the nucleon correlations within the nucleus. These nuclear structure functions are then used to calculate the deep inelastic scattering cross sections. Moreover, the contribution of $\pi$ and $\rho$ mesons as well as the corrections due to the shadowing and antishadowing effects in the relevant kinematic region of the Bjorken variable $x$ are also included. The numerical results for the cross sections have been presented and compared with the results obtained in the phenomenological approach using nuclear structure functions from nCTEQnu.

Dependence of the parton distribution functions on the momentum transfer from the structure function of the nucleon

In this paper, we have provided an improved ansatz for the dependence of the valence quarks distribution functions on the momentum transfer (generalized parton distribution) via calculating the up- and down-valence quark distribution functions for ${Q}^{2}=0.5--35\phantom{\rule{0.16em}{0ex}}\mathrm{Ge}{\mathrm{V}}^{2}$ using the nucleon structure functions and probing their changes due to momentum transfer changes at the Bjorken $x$-range $x\ensuremath{\rightarrow}1$ so that this model describes the valence quark distribution function changes due to changes in momentum transfer for $x\ensuremath{\rightarrow}1$, then by using the presented ansatz, we obtained the Dirac and Pauli form factors of the proton and neutron. Finally, we have compared the calculated form factors in this paper with the results of the other models and experimental data.

Analytical perturbation theory and nucleon structure function in infrared region

We employ the analytic QCD (anQCD) approach to analyze the unpolarized nucleon structure function in deep inelastic scattering processes at next-to-leading-order accuracy. Considering the unreliable results of the underlying perturbative QCD (pQCD) at energy scales near to QCD cut off parameter ${Q}^{2}\ensuremath{\sim}{\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Lambda}}}^{2}$ and below, we modify the calculations at these scales using the anQCD approach and compare them with results from underlying pQCD and the available experimental data. The massive perturbation theory model is also used where an effective mass is attributed to gluons. Finally, we use the Jacobi polynomials formalism to transfer the calculations from Mellin moment space to Bjorken-$x$ space. To confirm the validity of the anQCD approach the Gottfried sum rule is also investigated. The achieved numerical results at low energy scales are compatible with what is expected and correspond to an admissible behavior of parton densities.

Evolution of the electroweak structure functions of nucleons

Evolution of the electroweak structure functions of nucleons

Deep inelastic (anti)neutrino–nucleus scattering

The present status of the field theoretical model studies of the deep inelastic scattering induced by (anti)neutrino on the nuclear targets in a wide range of Bjorken variable $x$ and four momentum transfer square $Q^2$, has been reviewed~\cite{Haider:2011qs,Haider:2012nf,Haider:2016zrk,Zaidi:2019mfd,Zaidi:2019asc,Ansari:2020xne}. The effect of the nonperturbative corrections such as target mass correction and higher twist effects, perturbative evolution of the parton densities, nuclear medium modifications in the nucleon structure functions, nuclear isoscalarity corrections on the weak nuclear structure functions have been discussed. These structure functions have been used to obtain the differential scattering cross sections. The various nuclear medium effects like the Fermi motion, binding energy, nucleon correlations, mesonic contributions, shadowing and antishadowing corrections relevant in the different regions of $x$ and $Q^2$ have been discussed. The numerical results for the structure functions and the cross sections are compared with some of the available experimental data including the recent results from MINERvA. The predictions are made in argon nuclear target which is planned to be used as a target material in DUNE at the Fermilab.

Short-range correlations and the nuclear EMC effect in deuterium and helium-3

The EMC effect in deuterium and helium-3 is studied using a convolution formalism that allows isolating the impact of high-momentum nucleons in short-ranged correlated (SRC) pairs. We assume that the modification of the structure function of bound nucleons is given by a universal (i.e. nucleus independent) function of their virtuality, and find that the effect of such modifications is dominated by nucleons in SRC pairs. This SRC-dominance of nucleon modifications is observed despite the fact that the bulk of the nuclear inelastic scattering cross-section comes from interacting with low-momentum nucleons. These findings are found to be robust to model details including nucleon modification function parametrization, free nucleon structure function and treatment of nucleon motion effects. While existing data cannot discriminate between such model details, we present predictions for measured, but not yet published, tritium EMC effect and tagged nucleon structure functions in deuterium that are sensitive to the neutron structure functions and bound nucleon modification functions.

Nonperturbative and higher order perturbative effects in deep inelastic ντ/ν¯τ -nucleon scattering

The effect of nonperturbative and higher order perturbative corrections to all the free nucleon structure functions ($F_{iN}(x,Q^2); i=1-5$) in the DIS of $\nu_\tau/{\bar\nu}_\tau$ on nucleon is studied. The target mass correction (TMC) and higher twist (HT) effects are incorporated following the works of Kretzer et al. and Dasgupta et al., respectively. The evaluation of the nucleon structure functions has been performed by using the MMHT 2014 parameterization of the parton distribution functions (PDFs). The calculations have been performed at the next-to-leading(NLO) order. These nucleon structure functions (SF) are used to calculate the DIS cross section by further including the kinematical corrections due to $\tau$-lepton mass. Due to the inclusion of lepton mass two additional structure functions $F_{4N}(x,Q^2)$ and $F_{5N}(x,Q^2)$ become non-negligible. The results for the nucleon structure functions, differential and total scattering cross sections are presented. The various effects considered in this work are effective in the different regions of $x$ and $Q^2$, and quite important in the energy region of $E_{\nu_\tau/{\bar\nu}_\tau} < 15$ GeV. A comparative study of our results with the existing results in the literature for the cross sections is made in the energy region of interest for the DUNE, SHiP, DsTau and HyperK experiments proposed to be done in the near future.

Nuclear shadowing in deep inelastic scattering on nuclei at very small x

Nuclear shadowing corrections to the structure functions of deep inelastic scattering on intermediate-mass nuclei are calculated at very small values of Bjorken x and small values of Q^2 (Q^2<5 Gev^2). The two-component approach developed in previous works of authors for a description of the nucleon structure functions of deep inelastic scattering is used. It is shown that the hard component of the nucleon structure functions that arises, in terms of the colour dipole model, from qq-pairs with a high transverse momentum, is almost not shadowed. It is shown that a change of the slope of the shadowing curve with a decrease of x depends, at small values of x, on the relative contribution of the hard component to the nucleon structure function (this contribution is a function of x and Q^2) and on a size of gluon saturation effects. It is shown that an accounting for saturation effects becomes essential for predictions of shadowing at x<10^-4, depending on a value of Q^2. Results of numerical calculations of nuclear shadowing for several nuclei are compared with available data of the E665 and the NMC collaborations.

QCD analysis of non-singlet structure functions at NNLO accuracy, based on the Laplace transform

In this work, using the Laplace transformation technique we present our results for non-singlet quark distributions as well as nucleon structure function $F_2(x,Q^2)$ in unpolarized case at next-to-next-to-leading order (NNLO) QCD accuracy. We shall particularly compare our results for the sets of valence-quark parton distribution functions with the contemporary collaborations like CT14, CT18, MMHT14, MKAM16 and NNPDF. To construct the nucleon structure function we employ the expansion of Jacobi polynomials which is a suitable transform to convert the results of non-singlet structure function from the Laplace $s$-space to Bjorken $x$-space. We shall also consider the contributions of target mass correction as well as the higher twist effects at large-$x$ region for the proton and deuteron structure functions. Our results for the unpolarized quark distribution functions and nucleon structure functions are in good agreement with recent theoretical models and available experimental data.

Parton and Valon Distributions in the Nuclei

In the valon model a nucleon is assumed to be a bound state of three valence quark clusters (valons). On this base the nucleus structure function which are made from nucleons are analysed. Here in the frame work of perturbative quantum chromodynamics (pQCD) the structure of the valons are described at next to leading-order (NLO) approximation. Using the constituent-quark model, structure function of nucleon is largely investigated in the nuclear medium. For a series of nuclei with the nuclear mass A such that 2 ≤ A ≤ 40 within the kinetic region 0.0001 ≤ x ≤ 0.9 which covers a wide range of x Bjorken variable, the theoretical predications are in good agreement with the existing lepton-nucleus data. A better and fair description of experimental data can be done, considering the shadowing effect for small values of x i.e. x < 0.01. Using the valon model, we do an analysis at the NLO approximation while shadowing effect is employed. A comparison between our theoretical prediction for nuclear parton distribution functions (nPDFs) and the results from recent collaborations like AT12 and HKN07 sets have been done. The results of our calculations are in good agreement with the experimental data in deep inelastic scattering (DIS) processes which covers an extended region of x-variable, including the small and also large x amounts and also with some theoretical models.

Weak structure functions in νl−N and νl−A scattering with nonperturbative and higher order perturbative QCD effects

We study the effect of various perturbative and nonperturbative QCD corrections on the free nucleon structure functions ($F_{iN}^{WI}(x,Q^2); ~i=1-3$) and their implications in the determination of nuclear structure functions. The evaluation of the nucleon structure functions has been performed by using the MMHT 2014 PDFs parameterization, and the TMC and HT effects are incorporated following the works of Schienbein et al. and Dasgupta et al., respectively. These nucleon structure functions are taken as input in the determination of nuclear structure functions. The numerical calculations for the $\nu_l/\bar\nu_l-A$ DIS process have been performed by incorporating the nuclear medium effects like Fermi motion, binding energy, nucleon correlations, mesonic contributions, shadowing and antishadowing in several nuclear targets such as carbon, polystyrene scintillator, iron and lead which are being used in MINERvA, and in argon nucleus which is relevant for the ArgoNeuT and DUNE experiments. The differential scattering cross sections $\frac{d^2\sigma_A^{WI}}{dx dy}$ and $(\frac{d\sigma_A^{WI}}{dx}/\frac{d\sigma_{CH}^{WI}}{dx})$ have also been studied in the kinematic region of MINERvA experiment. The theoretical results are compared with the recent experimental data of MINERvA and the earlier data of NuTeV, CCFR, CDHSW and CHORUS collaborations. Moreover, a comparative analysis of the present results for the ratio $(\frac{d\sigma_A^{WI}}{dx}/\frac{d\sigma_{CH}^{WI}}{dx})$, and the results from the MC generator GENIE and other phenomenological models of Bodek and Yang, and Cloet et al., has been performed in the context of MINERvA experiment. The predictions have also been made for $\bar\nu_l-A$ cross section relevant for MINERvA experiment.