2023/11/14 by Ya Lu, Lu, Ya, Yin-Zhen Xu +7 · 7 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #High-Energy Particle Collisions Research #Quantum Chromodynamics and Particle Interactions #Particle physics theoretical and experimental studies
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2311.08565
Exploiting an evolution scheme for parton distribution functions (DFs) that is all-orders exact, contemporary lattice-QCD (lQCD) results for low-order Mellin moments of the pion valence quark DF are shown to be mutually consistent. The analysis introduces a means by which key odd moments can be obtained from the even moments in circumstances where only the latter are available. Combining these elements, one arrives at parameter-free lQCD-based predictions for the pointwise behaviour of pion valence, glue, and sea DFs, with sound uncertainty estimates. The behaviour of the pion DFs at large light-front momentum fraction, x> 0.85, is found to be consistent with QCD expectations and continuum analyses of pion structure functions, i.e., damping like (1 -x)^β\rm parton, with β\rm valence ≈ 2.4, β\rm glue ≈ 3.6, β\rm sea ≈ 4.6. It may be possible to test these predictions using data from forthcoming experiments.