Using recent experimental data, we analyze the electromagnetic transition from the nucleon to the P11(1440) resonance. From the resulting empirical transition form factors, we map out the quark transverse charge densities which induce the N to P11(1440) transition. It is found that the transition from the proton to its first radially excited state is dominated by up quarks in a central region of around 0.5 fm and by down quarks in an outer band which extends up to about 1 fm.
In the wounded nucleon model, a proton-nucleus (p+A) collision is a superposition of independent nucleon-nucleon collisions. We use this model to calculate the average transverse momentum of pions, kaons and protons in high energy p+A collisions. For the same number of produced particles, because the number of participants differs, in the wounded nucleon model the transverse momentum of hadrons can differ between p+p and p+A collisions. In this model we find that the average transverse momentum in high multiplicity p+A collisions depends weakly on the number of produced particles, and underest…
Through an impulse approximation analysis of single spin Sivers and Collins asymmetries in the Bjorken limit, the possibility to extract the quark transverse-momentum distributions in the neutron from semi-inclusive deep inelastic electron scattering off polarized 3He is illustrated. The analysis is generalized to finite momentum transfers in a light-front Poincare' covariant framework, defining the light-front spin-dependent spectral function of a J=1/2 system. The definition of the light-front spin-dependent spectral function for constituent quarks in the nucleon allows us to show that, with…
We present the program summary and long write-up for SPHINX TT, a new Monte Carlo simulation for transversely polarized nucleon-nucleon scattering. The program is based on Pythia/Jetset.
The transverse densities in a fast-moving nucleon offer a model-independent framework for analyzing the spatial structure of the pion cloud and its role in current matrix elements. We calculate the chiral large-distance component of the charge density using a dispersion representation of the form factor and discuss its partonic interpretation. The non-chiral core is dominant up to surprisingly large distances ~2 fm. The chiral component can be probed in precision low-Q^2 elastic eN scattering or in peripheral deep-inelastic processes which resolve its quark/gluon content.
In the light-front description of nucleon structure the electromagnetic form factors are expressed in terms of frame-independent transverse densities of charge and magnetization. Recent work has studied the transverse densities at peripheral distances b = O(M_pi^{-1}), where they are governed by universal chiral dynamics and can be computed in a model-independent manner. Of particular interest is the comparison of the peripheral charge and magnetization densities. We summarize (a) their interpretation as spin-independent and -dependent current matrix elements; (b) the leading-order chiral effe…
Using the recent empirical information on the deuteron electromagnetic form factors we map out the transverse charge density in the deuteron as viewed from a light front moving towards the deuteron. The charge densities for a transversely polarized deuteron are characterized by monopole, dipole and quadrupole patterns.
We investigate the transverse quark spin densities of the nucleon with the lowest moment within the framework of the SU(3) chiral quark-soliton model, emphasizing the strange quark spin density. Based on previous results of the vector and tensor form factors, we are able to determine the impact-parameter dependent probability densities of transversely polarized quarks in an unpolarized nucleon as well as those of unpolarized quarks in a transversely polarized nucleon. We find that the present numerical results for the transverse spin densities of the up and down quarks are in good agreement wi…
We present a systematic study of generalized transverse-momentum dependent parton distributions (GTMDs). By taking specific limits or projections, these GTMDs yield various transverse-momentum dependent and generalized parton distributions, thus providing a unified framework to simultaneously model different observables. We present such simultaneous modeling by considering a light-cone wave function overlap representation of the GTMDs. We construct the different quark-quark correlation functions from the 3-quark Fock components within both the light-front constituent quark model as well as wit…
The twist-four quark and gluon distributions in a transversely polarized nucleon are identified and relations among them are discussed by using QCD equations of motion. Their contribution, at the order of ${\cal O} \left( 1/Q^2 \right)$, to the Drell-Yan cross section in transversely polarized nucleon-nucleon collisions is calculated.
We investigate the medium modification of the generalized vector form factors of the nucleon, which include the electromagnetic and energy-momentum tensor form factors, based on an in-medium modified $π$-$ρ$-$ω$ soliton model. We find that the vector form factors of the nucleon in nuclear matter fall off faster than those in free space, which implies that the charge radii of the nucleon become larger in nuclear medium than in free space. We also compute the corresponding transverse charge densities of the nucleon in nuclear matter, which clearly reveal the increasing of the nucleon size in nuc…
We calculate the photon production cross section arising from the hard scattering of partons in nucleon-nucleon collisions by taking into account the intrinsic parton transverse momentum distribution and the next-to-leading-order contributions. As first pointed out by Owens, the inclusion of the intrinsic transverse momentum distribution of partons leads to an enhancement of photon production cross section in the region of photon transverse momenta of a few GeV/c for nucleon-nucleon collisions at a center-of-mass energy of a few tens of GeV. The enhancement increases as $\sqrt{s}$ decreases. S…
We derive the analog of the Wandzura-Wilczek relation for the light-cone distributions of polarized gluons in a transversely polarized nucleon. The short distance cross-section is entirely due to the intrinsic transverse momenta of gluon in the nucleon, in complete analogy to the quark case. Numerical estimate for the double spin transverse asymmetries at RHIC are presented.
Transverse-mass spectra of protons, pions and kaons produced in collisions of heavy nuclei are analyzed within the model of 3-fluid dynamics. It was demonstrated that this model consistently reproduces these spectra in wide ranges of incident energies E_{lab}, from 4A GeV to 160A GeV, rapidity bins and centralities of the collisions. In particular, the model describes the "step-like" dependence of kaon inverse slopes on the incident energy. The key point of this explanation is interplay of hydrodynamic expansion of the system with its dynamical freeze-out.
Using only the current empirical information on the nucleon electromagnetic form factors we map out the transverse charge density in proton and neutron as viewed from a light front moving towards a transversely polarized nucleon. These charge densities are characterized by a dipole pattern, in addition to the monopole field corresponding with the unpolarized density. Furthermore, we use the latest empirical information on the $N \to Δ$ transition form factors to map out the transition charge density which induces the $N \to Δ$ excitation. This transition charge density in a transversely polari…
We investigated the transverse charge densities in the nucleon in nuclear matter within the framework of the in-medium modified Skyrme model. The medium modification of the nucleon electromagnetic form factors are first discussed. The results show that the form factors in nuclear matter fall off faster than those in free space, as the momentum transfer increases. As a result, the charge radii of the nucleon become larger, as the nuclear matter density increases. The transverse charge densities in the nucleon indicate that the size of the nucleon tends to bulge out in nuclear matter. This salie…
The nucleon's electromagnetic form factors are expressed in terms of the transverse densities of charge and magnetization at fixed light-front time. At peripheral transverse distances $b = O(M_π^{-1})$ the densities are governed by chiral dynamics and can be calculated model-independently using chiral effective field theory (EFT). We represent the leading-order chiral EFT results for the peripheral transverse densities as overlap integrals of chiral light-front wave functions, describing the transition of the initial nucleon to soft pion-nucleon intermediate states and back. The new representa…
We explore the structure of the spin-1/2 flavor-octet baryons (hyperons) through their electromagnetic transverse densities. The transverse densities describe the distribution of charge and magnetization at fixed light-front time and enable a spatial representation of the baryons as relativistic systems. At peripheral distances b~1/M_pi the transverse densities are computed using a new method that combines chiral effective field theory and dispersion analysis. The peripheral isovector densities arise from two-pion exchange, which includes the rho-meson resonance through elastic unitarity. The …
We study the semi-classical interpretation of the $x^3$ and $x^4$ moments of twist-3 parton distribution functions (PDFs). While no semi-classical interpretation for the higher moments of $g_T(x)$ and $e(x)$ was find, the $x^3$ moment of the chirally odd spin-dependent twist-3 PDF $h_L^3(x)$ can be related to the longitudinal gradient of the transverse force on transversely polarized quarks in longitudinally polarized nucleons in a DIS experiment. We discuss how this result relates to the torque acting on a quark in the same experiment. This has further implications for comparisons between tha…
We review the current status and future perspectives of theory and experiments of transverse spin phenomena in high-energy scattering processes off nucleon targets and related issues in nucleon structure and QCD. Systematic exploration of transverse spin effects requires measurements in polarized deep-inelastic scattering, polarized pp collisions, and e+e- annihilations. Sophisticated QCD-based techniques are also needed to analyze the experimental data sets.
We present a complete study of the leading-twist quark Wigner distributions in the nucleon, discussing both the $\mathsf T$-even and $\mathsf T$-odd sector, along with all the possible configurations of the quark and nucleon polarizations. We identify the basic multipole structures associated with each distribution in the transverse phase space, providing a transparent interpretation of the spin-spin and spin-orbit correlations of quarks and nucleon encoded in these functions. Projecting the multipole parametrization of the Wigner functions onto the transverse-position and the transverse-momen…
Accounting for transverse momenta of the quarks, a longitudinal quark spin asymmetry exists in a transversely polarized nucleon target. The relevant leading quark distribution $g_{1T}(x,k_T^2)$ can be measured in the semi-inclusive deep-inelastic scattering. The average $k_T^2$ weighted distribution function $g^{(1)}_{1T}$ can be obtained directly from the inclusive measurement of $g_2$.
Relativistic prescriptions relating Sachs form factors to nucleon charge and magnetization densities are used to fit recent data for both the proton and the neutron. The analysis uses expansions in complete radial bases to minimize model dependence and to estimate the uncertainties in radial densities due to limitation of the range of momentum transfer. We find that the charge distribution for the proton is significantly broad than its magnetization density and that the magnetization density is slightly broader for the neutron than the proton. The neutron charge form factor is consistent with …
We present a study of longitudinal momentum densities ($p^+ \rm densities$) in the transverse impact parameter space for $u$ and $d$ quarks in both unpolarized and transversely polarized nucleons by taking a two dimensional Fourier transform of the gravitational form factors with respect to the momentum transfer in the transverse direction. The gravitational form factors are obtained by the second moments of GPDs. Here we consider the GPDs of two different soft-wall models in AdS/QCD correspondence.
COMPASS is a fixed target experiment at CERN. Part of its physics programme is dedicated to study the transverse spin and the transverse momentum structure of the nucleon using SIDIS. For these measurements, data have been collected using transversely polarised proton and deuteron targets. A selection of recent measurements of azimuthal asymmetries using data collected with transversely polarised protons is presented.
At large N_c the nucleon can be viewed as a soliton of the effective chiral lagrangian. This picture of nucleons allows a consistent nonperturbative calculation of the leading-twist parton distributions at a low normalization point. We derive general formulae for the transverse spin quark distribution h_1(x) in the chiral quark-soliton model. We present numerical estimates and compare them to the results obtained in other models.
We discuss our present understanding of the transverse spin structure of the nucleon and of related properties originating from parton transverse motion. Starting from the transversity distribution and the ways to access it, we then address the role played by spin and transverse momentum dependent (TMD) distributions in azimuthal and transverse single spin asymmetries. The latest extractions of the Sivers, Collins and transversity functions are also presented.
We study the Wigner functions of the nucleon which provide multidimensional images of the quark distributions in phase space. These functions can be obtained through a Fourier transform in the transverse space of the generalized transverse-momentum dependent parton distributions. They depend on both the transverse position and the three-momentum of the quark relative to the nucleon, and therefore combine in a single picture all the information contained in the generalized parton distributions and the transverse-momentum dependent parton distributions. We focus the discussion on the distributio…
We present first results from our analysis of the most general quark-quark correlator of the nucleon, which can be parameterized in terms of so-called generalized transverse momentum dependent parton distributions. These results include the first complete parameterization of the nucleon GPDs and TMDs to all twists as well as new results on possible nontrivial relations between them.
This work presents the first calculation in lattice QCD of three moments of spin-averaged and spin-polarized generalized parton distributions in the proton. It is shown that the slope of the associated generalized form factors decreases significantly as the moment increases, indicating that the transverse size of the light-cone quark distribution decreases as the momentum fraction of the struck parton increases.
High-energy elastic diffraction of nucleons is considered in the framework of the simplest Regge-eikonal approximation. It is demonstrated explicitly that the effective transverse radius of nucleon in this nonperturbative regime is $\sim 0.2÷0.3$ fm and much less than the transverse size of the diffractive interaction region.
In the partonic (or light-front) description of relativistic systems the electromagnetic form factors are expressed in terms of frame-independent charge and magnetization densities in transverse space. This formulation allows one to identify the chiral components of nucleon structure as the peripheral densities at transverse distances b = O(M_pi^{-1}) and compute them in a parametrically controlled manner. A dispersion relation connects the large-distance behavior of the transverse charge and magnetization densities to the spectral functions of the Dirac and Pauli form factors near the two-pio…
Recent progress on the extraction of electromagnetic properties of nucleon resonance excitation through pion photo- and electroproduction is reviewed. Cross section data measured at MAMI, ELSA, and CEBAF are analyzed and compared to the analysis of other groups. On this basis, we derive longitudinal and transverse transition form factors for most of the four-star nucleon resonances. Furthermore, we discuss how the transition form factors can be used to obtain empirical transverse charge densities. Contour plots of the thus derived densities are shown for the Delta, Roper, S11, and D13 nucleon …
Using the Coulomb Eikonal Phase associated with a transversely polarized nucleon, we calculate the azimuthal single spin asymmetry of unpolarized electrons elastically scattered from a transversely polarized nucleon target. The azimuthal asymmetry in this case is attributed to the fact that in a transversely polarized nucleon, the transverse charge density is no longer axially symmetric and is distorted due to the transverse spin of the nucleon. This asymmetry in the nucleon charge density causes a left-right asymmetry in the azimuthal distribution of the scattered electrons. In our approach, …
A selection is presented of recent results from the COMPASS Collaboration on transverse spin and transverse momentum effects in semi-inclusive deeply inelastic scattering (SIDIS) of 160 GeV/c muons off proton and deuteron targets.
Transverse densities describe the distribution of charge and current at fixed light-front time and provide a frame-independent spatial representation of hadrons as relativistic systems. We calculate the transverse densities of the octet baryons at peripheral distances b = O(M_pi^{-1}) in an approach combining chiral effective field theory (ChEFT) and dispersion analysis. The densities are represented as dispersive integrals of the imaginary parts of the baryon electromagnetic form factors in the timelike region (spectral functions). The spectral functions on the two-pion cut at t > 4 M_pi^2 ar…
Electromagnetic form factors obtained from the overlap of light front wave functions (LFWFs) have been used to study the transverse densities of charge and magnetization. The calculations have been carried out to develop a relation between the charge distribution of the quarks inside nucleon in the transverse coordinate space as well as in the impact parameter space. When a comparison is carried out, it is found that the transverse distribution in the impact parameter space, where the longitudinal momentum fraction $x$ can be fixed, falls off faster than the spatial distribution in the transve…
We investigate the nucleon to $Δ$ transition form factors in a soft-wall AdS/QCD model and a light-front quark-diquark model inspired by AdS/QCD. From the transition form factors we evaluate the transition charge densities which influences the nucleon to $Δ$ excitation. Here we consider both the unpolarized and the transversely polarized cases. The AdS/QCD predictions are compared with available experimental data and with the results of the global parameterization, MAID2007.
Background: The transverse densities $ρ_{1, 2}(b)$ describe the distributions of electric charge and magnetic moment at fixed light-front time and connect the nucleon's elastic form factors with its partonic structure. The dispersive representation of the form factors $F_{1, 2}(t)$ expresses the densities in terms of exchanges of hadronic states in the $t$-channel and permits their analysis using hadronic physics methods. Purpose: Compute the densities at peripheral distances $b = \mathcal{O}(M_π^{-1})$, where they are generated predominantly by the two-pion states in the dispersive representa…
The positivity bound for the transverse asymmetry $A_2$ may be improved by making use of the fact, that the state of a photon and a nucleon with total spin 3/2, does not participate to the interference. The bound is therefore useful in the case of a longitudinal asymmetry small (say, at low $x$) or negative (like in the neuteron case).
At low energies nucleon-nucleon interactions are resonant and therefore supernova matter at subnuclear densities has many similarities to atomic gases with interactions dominated by a Feshbach resonance. We calculate the rates of neutrino processes involving nucleon-nucleon collisions and show that these are enhanced in mixtures of neutrons and protons at subnuclear densities due to the large scattering lengths. As a result, the rate for neutrino pair bremsstrahlung and absorption is significantly larger below 10^{13} g cm^{-3} compared to rates used in supernova simulations.
We study the nucleon's partonic angular momentum (AM) content at peripheral transverse distances $b = \mathcal{O}(M_π^{-1})$, where the structure is governed by chiral dynamics. We compute the nucleon form factors of the energy-momentum tensor in chiral effective field theory (ChEFT) and construct the transverse densities of AM at fixed light-front time. In the periphery the spin density is suppressed, and the AM is predominantly orbital. In the first-quantized representation of ChEFT in light-front form, the field-theoretical AM density coincides with the quantum-mechanical orbital AM density…
The first moment of longitudinal and transverse spin densities of quarks in the nucleon are calculated in a light-front constituent quark model for the different cases of quark and nucleon polarization. Significant distortions are found for the transverse spin densities. In particular the Sivers function is predicted with opposite sign for up and down quarks and the Boer-Mulders function is predicted large and negative for both up and down quarks, in agreement with lattice calculations. Quite a different spin distribution is obtained for up and down quarks in the cases of quarks and proton tra…
QCD-based scaling arguments predict the predominance of longitudinal over transverse electroproduction of pions by terms $\propto Q^2$. However, data from JLAB, Cornell and DESY, covering a wide kinematical range $1 < Q^2 < 11\, {\rm GeV}^2$ and $2\, {\rm GeV} < W < 4\, {\rm GeV}$, do not show this expected behavior. At the same time standard descriptions of pion-electroproduction on nucleons have given a very good description of the longitudinal components of the cross sections. However, these very same models have failed grossly in describing the transverse component. We discuss here a commo…
The transverse mass spectra of light mesons produced in Au-Au collisions at 200 GeV/nucleon are analyzed in Tsallis statistics. In high energy collisions, it has been found that the spectra follow a generalized scaling law. We applied Tsallis statistics to the description of different particles using the scaling properties. The calculated results are in agreement with experimental data of PHENIX Collaboration. And, the temperature of emission sources is extracted consistently.
A Fourier-Bessel analysis is used to fit charge and magnetization densities to data for the nucleon Sachs form factors. The neutron and proton magnetization densities are very similar, but the proton charge density is significantly softer. A useful measurement of the neutron charge density is obtained, although the relative uncertainty in the interior will remain substantially larger than for the other densities until precise new data at higher Q^2 become available.
We present a calculation of the Mellin moments of the nucleon transverse quark spin densities extracted from the unpolarized and transversity generalized form factors. We use three $N_F=2+1+1$ ensembles of twisted mass fermions with quark masses tuned to their physical values and lattice spacings $a\sim 0.08$~fm, $a\sim 0.07$~fm and $a\sim 0.06$~fm and extrapolate the form factors to the continuum limit. Besides isovector densities we also include results for the tensor charge for each quark flavor using the ensemble with $a\sim 0.08$~fm for which we include the disconnected contributions.
We discuss the general formalism for the calculation in light-front quark models of the fully unintegrated, off-diagonal quark-quark correlator of the nucleon, parametrized in terms of generalized transverse momentum dependent parton distributions (GTMDs). By taking specific limits or projections, these GTMDs yield various transverse-momentum dependent and generalized parton distributions, thus providing a unified framework to simultaneously model different observables. The corresponding distributions in impact-parameter space are the Wigner functions which provide multidimensional images of t…
We present an exploratory study using generalized parton distributions of several observables related to transverse degrees of freedom in hadronic structure -- the nucleon transverse momentum, the transverse radius, or impact parameter, and the momentum transfer, $t$, dependence of the longitudinal variable $x$ -- in both nucleons and nuclei.
We investigate the two-dimensional transverse charge distributions of the transversely polarized nucleon. As the longitudinal momentum ($P_z$) of the nucleon increases, the electric dipole moment is induced, which causes the displacement of the transverse charge and magnetization distributions of the nucleon. The induced dipole moment of the proton reaches its maximum value at around $P_z \approx 3.2$ GeV due to the kinematical reason. We also investigate how the Abel transformations map the three-dimensional charge and magnetization distributions in the Breit frame on to the transverse charge…
We study the distribution of gluons in transverse space in the nucleon at moderately small x (~10^{-2}). At large transverse distances (impact parameters) the gluon density is generated by the 'pion cloud' of the nucleon, and can be calculated in terms of the gluon density in the pion. We investigate the large-distance behavior in two different approaches to chiral dynamics: i) phenomenological soft-pion exchange, ii) the large-N_c picture of the nucleon as a classical soliton of the pion field, which corresponds to degenerate N and Delta states. The large-distance contributions from the 'pion…
We study the semi-inclusive production of real, high-$p_T$, isolated photons in unpolarized and polarized lepton-proton collisions, $\ell p\to \ellγX$. In particular we analyze the transverse nucleon single-spin asymmetry within the collinear twist-3 formalism in perturbative QCD to leading order (LO) accuracy. We find that this spin asymmetry is generated by twist-3 dynamical quark-gluon-quark ($qgq$) correlations in the nucleon through the so-called soft-fermion and hard pole contributions. Hence, this process unprecedentedly allows for a point-by-point scan of the support of the dynamical $…
We present a study of the generalized parton distributions for the quarks in a proton in both momentum and position spaces using the light-front wave functions of a quark-diquark model for the nucleon predicted by the soft-wall model of AdS/QCD. The results are compared with the soft-wall AdS/QCD model of proton GPDs for zero skewness. We also calculate the GPDs for nonzero skewness. We observe that the GPDs have a diffraction pattern in longitudinal position space, as seen before in other models. Then we present a comparitive study of the nucleon charge and anomalous magnetization densities i…
The deuteron transverse charge density $ρ_C(b)$ is the two-dimensional Fourier transform of its charge form factor in the impact space. We show that different parameterizations of the charge form factors provide different $ρ_C(b)$, in particular at the central value of impact parameter ($b=0$), although all the parameterizations can well reproduce the form factors in the region of small $Q^2$. In addition, we also check the explicit contributions from the different coordinate intervals of the deuteron wave function to its root-mean-square radius.
Color Lorentz force on a transversely polarized quark in the nucleon
Institute of Modern Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences（中国科学院近代物理研究所）；University of Chinese Academy of Sciences（中国科学院大学）；Iowa State University（爱荷华州立大学）
We summarize what is known about the transverse spatial distribution of gluons in the nucleon and its x-dependence from exclusive J/psi photo/electroproduction in e-p fixed-target and collider experiments (HERA H1 and ZEUS). This information can be used to predict the impact parameter dependence of the cross section for certain hard QCD processes (dijet production) in pbar-p and p-p collisions at the Tevatron and LHC.
The proton's transverse polarization structure is examined in terms of the Lorentz-covariant Pauli-Lubanski vector in QCD. We find that there are contributions from leading, subleading, and next-to-subleading partonic contributions in the light-front system of coordinates. The subleading and next-to-subleading contributions are related to the leading one through Lorentz symmetry. And the leading contribution obeys a simple partonic angular momentum sum rule that gives a clear physical interpretation to a relation known previously.
We calculate the non-zero Boer-Mulders functions of sea quarks inside the proton in a meson-baryon fluctuation model. The results show that the transverse spin effects of sea quarks in an unpolarized nucleon are sizable. Using the obtained antiquark Boer-Mulders functions, we estimate the $\cos 2 ϕ$ asymmetries in the unpolarized $pp$ and $p D$ Drell-Yan processes at FNAL E866/NuSea experiments. The prediction for the $\cos 2 ϕ$ asymmetries in the unpolarized $pp$ Drell-Yan process at the BNL Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) is also given.
Previous Lattice QCD calculations of nucleon transverse momentum-dependent parton distributions (TMDs) focused on the case of transversely polarized nucleons, and thus did not encompass two leading-twist TMDs associated with longitudinal polarization, namely, the helicity TMD and the worm-gear TMD corresponding to transversely polarized quarks in a longitudinally polarized nucleon. Based on a definition of TMDs via hadronic matrix elements of quark bilocal operators containing staple-shaped gauge connections, TMD observables characterizing the aforementioned two TMDs are evaluated, utilizing a…
