2024/05/23 by Marston Copeland, Copeland, Marston, Thomas Mehen +1 · 1 citation
Chemistry · #FOS: Physical sciences #High Energy Physics - Phenomenology (hep-ph) #Molecular spectroscopy and chirality #Nuclear Theory (nucl-th)
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2405.14965
openalex publication_date 2024/05/23 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
We develop a theoretical framework to match transverse momentum dependent parton distribution functions (TMD PDFs) onto chiral effective theory operators. In this framework the TMD PDF is expressed as a convolution of TMD hadronic distribution functions, which describe fluctuations of initial states into intermediate hadrons in chiral perturbation theory, and short distance matching coefficients, which are the TMD PDFs of intermediate hadrons in the chiral limit. The various limits of the matching condition are explored and an operator product expansion is applied to the high energy TMD matching coefficients, allowing them to be written in terms of the collinear valence PDFs of intermediate hadrons. As an example, we calculate the isovector TMD hadronic distribution functions for the proton at leading order in the chiral expansion.