Parton distribution functions in the pion from lattice QCD

Mar, 2003
21 pages
Published in:
  • Phys.Rev.D 68 (2003) 034025
e-Print:
Report number:
  • NT-UW-03-04,
  • JLAB-THY-03-28,
  • ADP-03-110-T548

Citations per year

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Abstract:
We analyze the moments of parton distribution functions in the pion calculated in lattice QCD, paying particular attention to their chiral extrapolation. Using the lowest three non-trivial moments calculated on the lattice, we assess the accuracy with which the x dependence of both the valence and sea quark distributions in the pion can be extracted. The resulting valence quark distributions at the physical pion mass are in fair agreement with existing Drell-Yan data, but the statistical errors are such that one cannot yet confirm (or rule out) the large-x behavior expected from hadron helicity conservation in perturbative QCD. However, one can expect that the next generation of calculations in lattice QCD will allow one to extract parton distributions with a level of accuracy comparable with current experiments.
Note:
  • 22 pages, 4 figures, to appear in Phys. Rev. D Report-no: NT@UW-03-04, JLAB-THY-03-28, ADP-03-110/T548
  • 13.60.Hb
  • 12.38.Gc
  • 12.39.Fe
  • fermion: lattice field theory
  • quantum chromodynamics
  • quark: momentum spectrum
  • x-dependence
  • pi: structure function
  • structure function: moment
  • symmetry: chiral