2022/06/25 by Christopher C. Leon, Leon, Christopher, Misak Sargsian +1
Physics and Astronomy · #FOS: Physical sciences #High Energy Physics - Phenomenology (hep-ph) #High-Energy Particle Collisions Research #Particle physics theoretical and experimental studies #Quantum Chromodynamics and Particle Interactions
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2206.12522
openalex publication_date 2022/06/25 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
We report the observation of the existence of a possible universal limit for valence parton distributions that should exist once partonic degrees of freedom are relevant for high energy scattering from strongly interacting bound systems like a nucleon, meson or a few nucleon system at very short distances. Our observation is based on the notion that the Bjorken x weighted valence parton distribution function has a peak, xp, that characterizes the average momentum fraction carried out by the valence quarks in the system. Within the residual mean-field model of the valence quark distribution we found that xp has an upper limit: xp ≤ 1\over 2(nV-1), where nV is the number of valence quarks which can be considered in the cluster embedded in the strongly interacting environment of the bound system. The existence of such a limit imposes a new constraint on choosing the starting resolution scale Q0 for PDFs. Our prediction for the nucleon is that xp|Q→ Q0≤1\over 4, which is in agreement with all the available valence PDFs that employ the standard approach for selecting starting Q0. We also demonstrate how the existence of this limit can be used to check the onset of quark-clusters in short range nucleon correlations in nuclei.