Quark Contributions Research Articles

Magnetic moments of the spin- 32 singly heavy baryons

We calculate the magnetic moments of spin-$3\over 2$ singly charmed baryons in the heavy baryon chiral perturbation theory (HBChPT). The analytical expressions are given up to $\mathcal{O}(p^3)$. The heavy quark symmetry is used to reduce the number of low energy constants (LECs). With the lattice QCD simulation data as the magnetic moments of the charmed baryons, the numerical results are given up to $\mathcal{O}(p^3)$ in three scenarios. In the first scenario, we use the results in the quark model as the leading order input. In the second scenario, we use the heavy quark symmetry and neglect the contribution of heavy quark. In the third scenario, the heavy quark contribution is considered on the basis of the scenario II and the magnetic moments of singly bottom baryons are given as a by-product.

Magnetized Quark-Gluon Plasma at the LHC

In QCD, the strengths of the large scale temperature dependent chromomagnetic, $B_3, B_8$, and usual magnetic, $H$, fields spontaneously generated in quark-gluon plasma after the deconfinement phase transition (DPT), are estimated. The consistent at high temperature effective potential accounting for the one-loop plus daisy diagrams is used. The heavy ion collisions at the LHC and temperatures T not much higher than the phase transition temperature $T_d$ are considered. The critical temperature for the magnetized plasma is found to be $T_d(H)$ ~ $110 - 120$ MeV. This is essentially lower compared to the zero field value $T_d(H=0)$~ $160-180$ MeV usually discussed in the literature. Due to contribution of quarks, the color magnetic fields act as the sources generating H. The strengths of the fields are $B_3(T), B_8(T) \sim 10^{18} - 10^{19}G, H(T) \sim 10^{16} - 10^{17}G$ for temperatures T ~ 160 - 220 MeV. At temperatures $T < 110 - 120$ MeV the effective potential minimum value being negative approaches to zero. This is signaling the absence of the background fields and color confinement.

Low-p_{T} e^{+}e^{-} Pair Production in Au+Au Collisions at sqrt[s_{NN}]=200 GeV and U+U Collisions at sqrt[s_{NN}]=193 GeV at STAR.

We report first measurements of e^{+}e^{-} pair production in the mass region 0.4<M_{ee}<2.6 GeV/c^{2} at low transverse momentum (p_{T}<0.15 GeV/c) in noncentral Au+Au collisions at sqrt[s_{NN}]=200 GeV and U+U collisions at sqrt[s_{NN}]=193 GeV. Significant enhancement factors, expressed as ratios of data over known hadronic contributions, are observed in the 40%-80% centrality of these collisions. The excess yields peak distinctly at low p_{T} with a width (sqrt[⟨p_{T}^{2}⟩]) between 40 and 60 MeV/c. The absolute cross section of the excess depends weakly on centrality, while those from a theoretical model calculation incorporating an in-medium broadened ρ spectral function and radiation from a quark gluon plasma or hadronic cocktail contributions increase dramatically with an increasing number of participant nucleons. Model calculations of photon-photon interactions generated by the initial projectile and target nuclei describe the observed excess yields but fail to reproduce the p_{T}^{2} distributions.

Nucleon charges with dynamical overlap fermions

We calculate the scalar and tensor charges of the nucleon in 2+1-flavor lattice QCD, for which the systematics of the renormalization of the disconnected diagram is well controlled. Numerical simulations are performed at a single lattice spacing a = 0.11 fm. We simulate four pion masses, which cover a range of $m_\pi \sim$ 290 - 540 MeV, and a single strange quark mass close to its physical value. The statistical accuracy is improved by employing the so-called low-mode averaging technique and the truncated solver method. We study up, down, and strange quark contributions to the nucleon charges by calculating disconnected diagrams using the all-to-all quark propagator. Chiral symmetry is exactly preserved by using the overlap quark action to avoid operator mixing among different flavors, which complicates the renormalization of scalar and tensor matrix elements and leads to possibly large contamination to the small strange quark contributions. We also study the nucleon axial charge with contribution from the disconnected diagram. Our results are in reasonable agreement with experiments and previous lattice studies.

Electromagnetic form factors of Λc in the space-like momentum region**Supported by the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities of China (31020170QD052), the Natural Science Basic Research Plan in Shaanxi Province of China (2018JQ1002) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (11775024, 11575023)

We studied the electromagnetic form factors (EMFFs) of Λc and the contributions of the quark and diquark currents to the EMFFs of Λc in the space-like region in the Bethe–Salpeter equation approach with instantaneous approximation. In this picture, baryon Λc can be regarded as a two-body c(ud) system. We found that for different values of parameters the contribution of quark and diquark currents to the EMFFs of Λc is very different, while their total contribution to the EMFFs of Λc is similar. The EMFFs of Λc are similar to those of other baryons (proton, Ξ−, and Σ+) with a peak at ω = 1, where ω = v′ · v is the velocity transfer between the initial state (with velocity v) and the final state (with velocity v′) of Λc.

Bottom-quark effects in Higgs production at intermediate transverse momentum

We provide a precise description of the Higgs boson transverse momentum distribution including top and bottom quark contributions, that is valid for transverse momenta in the range mb ≲ p⊥ ≲ mt, where mb and mt are the bottom and top quark masses. This description is based on a combination of fixed next-to-leading order (NLO) results with next-to-next-to-leading logarithmic (NNLL) transverse momentum resummation. We show that ambiguities in the resummation procedure for the b-quark loops are of the same order as the related fixed-order uncertainties. We conclude that the current uncertainty in the top-bottom interference contribution to the Higgs transverse momentum spectrum is mathcal{O}left(20%right) .

Operator relations for gravitational form factors of a spin-0 hadron

The gravitational form factors for a hadron, the form factors for the hadron matrix element of the QCD energy-momentum tensor, not only describe the coupling of the hadron with a graviton, but also serve as unique quantities for describing the shape inside the hadron reflecting dynamics of quarks and gluons, such as the internal shear forces acting on the quarks/gluons and their pressure distributions. We consider the quark contribution to the gravitational form factors for a (pseudo)scalar hadron, and derive and clarify the relations satisfied by them as direct consequences of the symmetries and the equations of motion in QCD, and connections to the generalized parton distributions. Our results reveal the connections between the gravitational form factors and the higher-twist quark-gluon correlation effects inside the hadrons.

Finite size effects in strongly interacting matter at zero chemical potential from Polyakov loop Nambu-Jona-Lasinio model in the light of lattice data

We study finite volume effects within the Polyakov loop Nambu-Jona-Lasinio model for two light and one heavy quarks at vanishing baryon chemical potential and finite temperatures. We include three different Polyakov loop potentials and ensure that the predictions of our effective model in bulk are compatible with lattice QCD results. Finite size effects are taken into account by means of the Multiple Reflection Expansion formalism. We analyze several thermodynamic quantities including the interaction measure, the speed of sound, the surface tension, and the curvature energy and find that they are sensitive to finite volume effects, specially for systems with radii below sim 10hbox { fm} and temperatures around the crossover one. For all sizes, the system undergoes a smooth crossover. The chiral critical temperature decreases by around 5 % and the deconfinement temperature by less than a 2% when the radius goes from infinity to 3 fm. Thus, as the drop’s size decreases, both temperatures become closer. The surface tension is dominated by the contribution of strange quarks and the curvature energy by u and d quarks. At large temperatures both quantities grow proportionally to T^{3/2} but saturate to a constant value at low T.

Intrinsic charm contribution to the prompt atmospheric neutrino flux

In this work we investigate the impact of intrinsic charm on the prompt atmospheric neutrino flux. The color dipole approach to heavy quark production is generalized to include the contribution of processes initiated by charm quarks. The prompt neutrino flux is calculated assuming the presence of intrinsic charm in the wave function of the projetile hadron. The predictions are compared with previous color dipole results which were obtained taking into account only the process initiated by gluons. In addition, we estimate the atmospheric (conventional + prompt) neutrino flux and compare our predictions with the ICECUBE results for the astrophysical neutrino flux. Our results demonstrate that the contribution of the charm quark initiated process is non - negligible and that the prompt neutrino flux can be enhanced by a factor $\approx$ 2 at large neutrino energies if an intrinsic charm component is present in the proton wave function.

Precision electron beam polarimetry for next generation nuclear physics experiments

Polarized electron beams have played an important role in scattering experiments at moderate to high beam energies. Historically, these experiments have been primarily targeted at studying hadronic structure — from the quark contribution to the spin structure of protons and neutrons, to nucleon elastic form factors, as well as contributions to these elastic form factors from (strange) sea quarks. Other experiments have aimed to place constraints on new physics beyond the Standard Model. For most experiments, knowledge of the magnitude of the electron beam polarization has not been a limiting systematic uncertainty, with only moderately precise beam polarimetry requirements. However, a new generation of experiments will require extremely precise measurements of the beam polarization, significantly better than 1%. This paper will review standard electron beam polarimetry techniques and possible future technologies, with an emphasis on the ever-improving precision that is being driven by the requirements of electron scattering experiments.

Heavy quark form factors at three loops in the planar limit

We compute the color-planar and complete light quark non-singlet contributions to the heavy quark form factors in the case of the axialvector, scalar and pseudoscalar currents at three loops in perturbative QCD. We evaluate the master integrals applying a new method based on differential equations for general bases, which is applicable for all first order factorizing systems. The analytic results are expressed in terms of harmonic polylogarithms and real-valued cyclotomic harmonic polylogarithms.

Charge symmetry breaking effects in pion and kaon structure

Charge symmetry breaking (CSB) effects associated with the $u$ and $d$ quark mass difference are investigated in the quark distribution functions and spacelike electromagnetic form factors of the pion and kaon. We use a confining version of the Nambu--Jona-Lasinio model, where CSB effects at the infrared scale associated with the model are driven by the dressed $u$ and $d$ quark mass ratio, which because of dynamical chiral symmetry breaking is much closer to unity than the associated current quark mass ratio. The pion and kaon are given as bound states of a dressed quark and a dressed antiquark governed by the Bethe-Salpeter equation, and exhibit the properties of Goldstone bosons, with a pion mass difference given by $m_{\pi^+}^2 - m_{\pi^0}^2 \propto (m_u - m_d)^2$ as demanded by dynamical chiral symmetry breaking. We find significant CSB effects for realistic current quark mass ratios ($m_u/m_d \sim 0.5$) in the quark flavor-sector electromagnetic form factors of both the pion and kaon. For example, the difference between the $u$ and $d$ quark contributions to the $\pi^+$ electromagnetic form factors is about 8\% at a momentum transfer of $Q^2 \simeq 10\,$GeV$^2$, while the analogous effect for the light quark sector form factors in the $K^+$ and $K^0$ is about twice as large. For the Parton distribution functions, we find CSB effects which are considerably smaller than those found in the electromagnetic form factors.

Strange nucleon electromagnetic form factors from lattice QCD

We evaluate the strange nucleon electromagnetic form factors using an ensemble of gauge configurations generated with two degenerate maximally twisted mass clover-improved fermions with mass tuned to approximately reproduce the physical pion mass. In addition, we present results for the disconnected light quark contributions to the nucleon electromagnetic form factors. Improved stochastic methods are employed leading to high-precision results. The momentum dependence of the disconnected contributions is fitted using the model-independent z-expansion. We extract the magnetic moment and the electric and magnetic radii of the proton and neutron by including both connected and disconnected contributions. We find that the disconnected light quark contributions to both electric and magnetic form factors are nonzero and at the few percent level as compared to the connected. The strange form factors are also at the percent level but more noisy yielding statistical errors that are typically within one standard deviation from a zero value.

Baryon bags in strong coupling QCD

We discuss lattice QCD with one flavor of staggered fermions and show that in the path integral the baryon contributions can be fully separated from quark and diquark contributions. The baryonic degrees of freedom (d.o.f.) are independent of the gauge field, and the corresponding free fermion action describes the baryons through the joint propagation of three quarks. The nonbaryonic dynamics is described by quark and diquark terms that couple to the gauge field. When evaluating the quark and diquark contributions in the strong coupling limit, the partition function completely factorizes into baryon bags and a complementary domain. Baryon bags are regions in space-time where the dynamics is described by a single free fermion made out of three quarks propagating coherently as a baryon. Outside the baryon bags, the relevant d.o.f. are monomers and dimers for quarks and diquarks. The partition sum is a sum over all baryon bag configurations, and for each bag, a free fermion determinant appears as a weight factor.

Scalar, Axial, and Tensor Interactions of Light Nuclei from Lattice QCD.

Complete flavor decompositions of the matrix elements of the scalar, axial, and tensor currents in the proton, deuteron, diproton, and ^{3}He at SU(3)-symmetric values of the quark masses corresponding to a pion mass m_{π}∼806 MeV are determined using lattice quantum chromodynamics. At the physical quark masses, the scalar interactions constrain mean-field models of nuclei and the low-energy interactions of nuclei with potential dark matter candidates. The axial and tensor interactions of nuclei constrain their spin content, integrated transversity, and the quark contributions to their electric dipole moments. External fields are used to directly access the quark-line connected matrix elements of quark bilinear operators, and a combination of stochastic estimation techniques is used to determine the disconnected sea-quark contributions. The calculated matrix elements differ from, and are typically smaller than, naive single-nucleon estimates. Given the particularly large, O(10%), size of nuclear effects in the scalar matrix elements, contributions from correlated multinucleon effects should be quantified in the analysis of dark matter direct-detection experiments using nuclear targets.

Holographic estimate of the meson cloud contribution to nucleon axial form factor

We use light-front Holography to estimate the valence quark and the meson cloud contributions to the nucleon axial form factor. The free couplings of the holographic model are determined by the empirical data and by the information extracted from lattice QCD. The holographic model provides a good description of the empirical data when we consider a meson cloud mixture of about 30\% in the physical nucleon state. The estimate of the valence quark contribution to the nucleon axial form factor compares well with the lattice QCD data for small pion masses. Our estimate of the meson cloud contribution to the nucleon axial form factor has a slower falloff with the square momentum transfer compared to typical estimates from quark models with meson cloud dressing.

Nuclear Parton Distribution Functions (nPDFs) and Their Uncertainties in the LHC Era

.

First global next-to-leading order determination of diffractive parton distribution functions and their uncertainties within the xFitter framework

We present GKG18-DPDFs, a next-to-leading order (NLO) QCD analysis of diffractive parton distribution functions (diffractive PDFs) and their uncertainties. This is the first global set of diffractive PDFs determined within the xFitter framework. This analysis is motivated by all available and most up-to-date data on inclusive diffractive deep inelastic scattering (diffractive DIS). Heavy quark contributions are considered within the framework of the Thorne–Roberts (TR) general mass variable flavor number scheme (GM-VFNS). We form a mutually consistent set of diffractive PDFs due to the inclusion of high-precision data from H1/ZEUS combined inclusive diffractive cross sections measurements. We study the impact of the H1/ZEUS combined data by producing a variety of determinations based on reduced data sets. We find that these data sets have a significant impact on the diffractive PDFs with some substantial reductions in uncertainties. The predictions based on the extracted diffractive PDFs are compared to the analyzed diffractive DIS data and with other determinations of the diffractive PDFs.

Top quark mass studies with toverline{t}j at the LHC

A precise measurement of the top quark mass, a fundamental parameter of the Standard Model, is among the most important goals of top quark studies at the Large Hadron Collider. Apart from the standard methods, numerous new observables and reconstruction techniques are employed to improve the overall precision and to provide different sensitivities to various systematic uncertainties. Recently, the normalised inverse invariant mass distribution of the toverline{t} system and the leading extra jet not coming from the top quark decays has been proposed for the ppto toverline{t}j production process, denoted as ℛ(mtpole, ρs). In this paper, a thorough study of different theoretical predictions for this observable, however, with top quark decays included, is carried out. We focus on fixed order NLO QCD calculations for the di-lepton top quark decay channel at the LHC with sqrt{s}=13 TeV. First, the impact on the extraction of mt is investigated and afterwards the associated uncertainties are quantified. In one approach we include all interferences, off-shell effects and non-resonant backgrounds. This is contrasted with a different approach with top quark decays in the narrow width approximation. In the latter case, two cases are employed: NLO QCD corrections to the ppto toverline{t}j production process with leading order decays and the more sophisticated case with QCD corrections and jet radiation present also in top quark decays. The top quark mass sensitivity of ℛ(mtpole, ρs) is investigated and compared to other observables: the invariant mass of the top anti-top pair, the minimal invariant mass of the b-jet and a charged lepton as well as the total transverse momentum of the toverline{t}j system. Once top quark decays are included the invariant mass of the toverline{t} system shows better sensitivity to the top quark mass extraction and smaller dependence on the off-shell effects and non-resonant contributions of the top quark and the W gauge boson than the ℛ(mtpole, ρs) observable.

Singlet structure function F_1 in double-logarithmic approximation

The conventional ways to calculate the perturbative component of the DIS singlet structure function F_1 involve approaches based on BFKL which account for the single-logarithmic contributions accompanying the Born factor 1 / x. In contrast, we account for the double-logarithmic (DL) contributions unrelated to 1 / x and because of that they were disregarded as negligibly small. We calculate the singlet F_1 in the double-logarithmic approximation (DLA) and account at the same time for the running alpha _s effects. We start with a total resummation of both quark and gluon DL contributions and obtain the explicit expression for F_1 in DLA. Then, applying the saddle-point method, we calculate the small-x asymptotics of F_1, which proves to be of the Regge form with the leading singularity omega _0 = 1.066. Its large value compensates for the lack of the factor 1 / x in the DLA contributions. Therefore, this Reggeon can be identified as a new Pomeron, which can be quite important for the description of all QCD processes involving the vacuum (Pomeron) exchanges at very high energies. We prove that the expression for the small-x asymptotics of F_1 scales: it depends on a single variable Q^2/x^2 only instead of x and Q^2 separately. Finally, we show that the small-x asymptotics reliably represent F_1 at x le 10^{-6}.