The Partonic Content of Nucleons and Nuclei

Deepening our knowledge of the partonic content of nucleons and nuclei represents a central endeavor of modern high-energy and nuclear physics, with ramifications in related disciplines, such as astroparticle physics. There are two main scientific drivers motivating these investigations of the partonic structure of hadrons. On the one hand, addressing fundamental open issues in our understanding of the strong interaction, such as the origin of the nucleon mass, spin, and transverse structure; the presence of heavy quarks in the nucleon wave function; and the possible onset of novel gluon-dominated dynamical regimes. On the other hand, pinning down with the highest possible precision the substructure of nucleons and nuclei is a central component for theoretical predictions in a wide range of experiments, from proton and heavy-ion collisions at the Large Hadron Collider to ultra-high-energy neutrino interactions at neutrino telescopes.

Structure of the Nucleon and its Excitations

The structure of the ground state nucleon and its finite-volume excitations are examined from three different perspectives. Using new techniques to extract the relativistic components of the nucleon wave function, the node structure of both the upper and lower components of the nucleon wave function are illustrated. A non-trivial role for gluonic components is manifest. In the second approach, the parity-expanded variational analysis (PEVA) technique is utilised to isolate states at finite momenta, enabling a novel examination of the electric and magnetic form factors of nucleon excitations. Here the magnetic form factors of low-lying odd-parity nucleons are particularly interesting. Finally, the structure of the nucleon spectrum is examined in a Hamiltonian effective field theory analysis incorporating recent lattice-QCD determinations of low-lying two-particle scattering-state energies in the finite volume. The Roper resonance of Nature is observed to originate from multi-particle coupled-channel interactions while the first radial excitation of the nucleon sits much higher at approximately 1.9 GeV.

THE ROLE OF FERMI MOTION ON THE STRUCTURE FUNCTIONS OF 3He AND 3H NUCLEI IN THE QUARK EXCHANGE FRAMEWORK

The quark exchange model and the full three-nucleon wave function in the configuration space are used to evaluate the role of Fermi motion on the structure functions (SFs) of helium-3 and tritium nuclei. The three-nucleon wave function is obtained from the solution of the Faddeev equations with the Malfliet–Tjon-type potential, by using the three-dimensional approach as a function of the magnitudes of the Jacobi momenta vectors and the angle between them. In this calculation, the initial valence quarks inputs are taken from the GRV's (Glück, Reya and Vogt) fitting procedure and the next-to-leading order (NLO) QCD calculation on [Formula: see text], which give a very good fit to the available experimental data in the (x, Q2)-plane. The role of Fermi motion on the EMC ratio of the SFs of 3 He and 3 H nuclei are analyzed through the NLO expansion of the nuclear wave function in the coordinate space. A good agreement between the calculated EMC ratios, the corresponding experimental data and the theoretical results is found. Finally, the ratios of the SFs of the neutron to the proton (with the isospin symmetry assumption) with and without the Fermi motion effect, are also calculated, and they are compared with the available experimental data. Our results show that the roles of the Fermi motion in the framework of the quark exchange model for the calculations of the nuclear SFs are important.

QCD AND QED DYNAMICS IN THE EMC EFFECT

Applying exact QCD sum rules for the baryon charge and energy–momentum conservation we demonstrate that if the only degrees of freedom in nuclei were nucleons, the structure function of a nucleus would be the additive sum of the nucleon distributions at the same Bjorken x = AQ2/2(pA⋅q)≤0.5 up to very small Fermi motion corrections if 1/2mN x is significantly less than the nucleus radius. Hence QCD implies that the proper quantity to reveal violation of the additivity due to presence of nonnucleonic degrees of freedom in nuclei is the ratio RA(x, Q2) = (2/A)F2A(x, Q2)/F2D(x, Q2). Use of variable xp = Q2/2q0mp in the experimental studies instead of x leads to the deviation of RA(xp, Q2) from one even if the nucleus would consist only of nucleons with small momenta. Implementation of QCD dynamics accounts in the case of the light nuclei for at least a half of the deviation of RA(xp, Q2) from one for x≤0.55. In the case of heavy nuclei account of the QCD dynamics and of light-cone momentum fraction carried by Fermi, Weizsacker, Williams equivalent photons are responsible for ≈ one half the deviation of RA(x, Q2) from one at x≤0.55. We argue that direct observation of large and predominantly nucleonic short-range correlations (SRCs) in nuclei impacts strongly on the understanding of the EMC effect for x≥0.6 posing a serious challenge for most of the proposed models of the EMC effect. The data are consistent with a scenario in which the hadronic EMC effect reflects suppression of rare quark–gluon configurations in nucleons belonging to SRC appears to be the only viable. The dynamic realization of this scenario is presented in which quantum fluctuations of the nucleon wave function with x≥0.5 parton have a weaker interaction with nearby nucleons, leading to suppression of such configurations in bound nucleons and to the significant suppression of nucleon Fermi motion effects at x≥0.55 giving a right magnitude of the EMC effect. Implications of discussed effects for the analyses of the neutron structure function and nuclear parton distributions are presented. The directions for the future studies and challenging questions are outlined.

SEARCHING FOR EFFECTS OF TENSOR FORCES IN NUCLEI

Effects of tensor interactions in nucleus are discussed from the experimental view points. Two recent studies, one is the mixing of s- and p- waves in 11 Li halo and the other is the high momentum component in the nucleon wave function from a transfer reaction. Preliminary results of 16 O ( p , d )15 O reaction show an abnormal relative enhancement of the transition to the positive parity state of 15 O , which is not a hole state, consistent with contents of high momentum nucleon expected from the tensor interactions. The importance of the inclusion of tensor force, that can not be described in the mean field model, is discussed.