We review the current status of spin-averaged and spin-dependent parton distribution functions (PDFs) of the nucleon. After presenting the formalism used to fit PDFs in modern global data analyses, we discuss constraints placed on the PDFs by specific data types. We give representative examples of unpolarized and polarized PDFs and their errors, and list open questions in global QCD fitting. Finally, we anticipate how future facilities, with fixed-target and collider experiments, may impact our knowledge of PDFs and reduce their uncertainties.
We discuss the general properties of generalized parton distributions with helicity flip (transversity) for spin-1 hadrons in the leading twist case. Using a basic light cone convolution model, we show the deuteron helicity amplitudes containing quark helicity flip GPDs and comment on the role deuteron angular momentum plays in these.
Multiple parton scattering and induced parton energy loss in deeply inelastic scattering (DIS) off heavy nuclei is studied within the framework of generalized factorization in perturbative QCD with a complete calculation beyond the helicity amplitude (or soft bremsstrahlung) approximation. Such a calculation gives rise to new corrections to the modified quark fragmentation functions. The effective parton energy loss is found to be reduced by a factor of 5/6 from the result of helicity amplitude approximation.
Helicity-dependent generalized parton distributions of the nucleon are derived from the overlap representation of generalized parton distributions using light-cone wave functions obtained in constituent quark models. Results from two different quark models are used also to study the angular momentum sum rule and the spin asymmetry in polarized electron scattering.
Generalized parton distributions with helicity flip are studied in the quark sector, within a simple version of the MIT bag model, assuming an SU(6) wave function for the proton target. In the framework under scrutiny it turns out that only the generalized transversity distribution, H_T^q, is non vanishing. For this quantity, the forward limit is properly recovered and numerical results are found to underestimate recent lattice data for its first moment. Positivity bounds recently proposed are fulfilled by the obtained distribution. The relevance of the analysis for the planning of measurement…
We show that for both quarks and gluons there are eight generalized parton distributions in the proton: four which conserve parton helicity and four which do not. We explain why time reversal invariance does not reduce this number from eight to six, as previously assumed in the literature.
An approach, recently proposed to calculate the nucleon generalized parton distributions (GPDs) in a constituent quark model (CQM) scenario, in which the constituent quarks are taken as complex systems, is used to obtain helicity-dependent GPDs. They are obtained from the wave functions of the non relativistic CQM of Isgur and Karl, convoluted with the helicity-dependent GPDs of the constituent quarks themselves. The latter are modelled by using the polarized structure functions of the constituent quark, the double distribution representation of GPDs, and a phenomenological constituent quark f…
The helicity dependent parton distributions describe the number density of partons with given longitudinal momentum x and given polarization in a hadron polarized longitudinally with respect to its motion. After the discovery, more than 70 years ago, that the proton is not elementary, the observation of Bjorken scaling in the late 1960s lead to the idea of hadrons containing almost pointlike constituents, the partons. Since then, Deep Inelastic Scattering (DIS) has played a crucial role in our understanding of hadron structure. Through DIS experiments it has been possible to link the partons t…
Quark and gluon helicity flip generalized parton distributions (GPDs) address the transversity quark and gluon structure of the nucleon. In order to construct a theoretically consistent parametrization of these hadronic matrix elements, we work out the set of combinations of those GPDs suitable for the ${\rm SO}(3)$ partial wave (PW) expansion in the cross-channel. This universal result will help to build up a flexible parametrization of these important hadronic non-perturbative quantities, using for instance the approaches based on the conformal PW expansion of GPDs such as the Mellin-Barnes …
We examine the QCD evolution of the helicity and transversity parton distribution functions when including also their dependence on transverse momentum. Using an appropriate definition of these polarized transverse momentum distributions (TMDs), we describe their dependence on the factorization scale and rapidity cutoff, which is essential for phenomenological applications.
We present results on the quark unpolarized, helicity and transversity parton distributions functions of the nucleon. We use the quasi-parton distribution approach within the lattice QCD framework and perform the computation using an ensemble of twisted mass fermions with the strange and charm quark masses tuned to approximately their physical values and light quark masses giving pion mass of 260 MeV. We use hierarchical probing to evaluate the disconnected quark loops. We discuss identification of ground state dominance, the Fourier transform procedure and convergence with the momentum boost.…
We discuss the calculation of the evolution kernels ΔW_ζ(X,Z) for the leading-twist nonforward parton distributions G_ζ(X,t) sensitive to parton helicities. We present our results for the kernels governing evolution of the relevant light-ray operators and describe a simple method allowing to obtain from them the components of the nonforward kernels ΔW_ζ(X,Z).
In this work, we show how the complete set of splitting functions relevant for the evolution of various distribution functions describing nucleonic helicity structure can be obtained in the light front Hamiltonian perturbation theory using completely fixed light front gauge, $A^+=0$.
We show that the one-loop QCD correction to deeply-virtual Compton scattering can be factorized into the finite perturbative contributions and the collinearly-divergent terms, which correspond to the matrix elements of the off-forward parton distributions. As a by-product, we obtain the next-to-leading order coefficient functions in the generalized operator product expansion of two vector currents.
We present a calculation of the generalized parton distributions (GPDs) of the photon when the helicity of the initial photon is different from the final photon. We calculate the GPDs using overlaps of photon light-front wave functions (LFWFs) at leading order in electromagnetic coupling $α$ and zeroth order in the strong coupling $α_s$, when the momentum transfer is purely in the transverse direction. These involve a contribution of orbital angular momentum of two units in the LFWFs. We express these GPDs in the impact parameter space.
We present, for the first time, an \textit{ab initio} calculation of the individual up, down and strange quark helicity parton distribution functions for the proton. The calculation is performed within the twisted mass clover-improved fermion formulation of lattice QCD using one ensemble of dynamical up, down, strange and charm quarks with a pion mass of 260 MeV. The lattice matrix elements are non-perturbatively renormalized and the final results are presented in the $\overline{ \rm MS}$ scheme at a scale of 2 GeV. We give results on the $Δu^+(x)$ and $Δd^+(x)$, including disconnected quark l…
We calculate the one-loop QCD virtual corrections to all helicity amplitudes for parton level virtual Compton scattering processes. We include the amplitudes both on quark target process $γ^* q\toγq$ and on gluon target process $γ^*g\toγg$. The infrared pole structure of the amplitudes is in agreement with the prediction of Catani's general formalism for the singularities of one-loop amplitudes, while expressions for the finite remainder are given in terms of logarithms and dilogarithms that are real in the physical region.
We predict a strong enhancement of multijet production in proton-nucleus collisions at collider energies, as compared to a naive expectation of a cross section $\propto A$. The study of the process would allow to measure, for the first time, the double parton distribution functions in a nucleon in a model independent way and hence to study both the longitudinal and the transverse correlations of partons.
We investigate the helicity dependent generalized parton distributions (GPDs) in momentum as well as transverse position (impact) spaces for up and down quarks in a proton when the momentum transfer in both the transverse and longitudinal directions are nonzero. The GPDs are evaluated using the light-front wavefunctions of a quark-diquark model for nucleon where the wavefunctions are constructed by the soft-wall AdS/QCD correspondence. We also express the GPDs in the boost-invariant longitudinal position space.
We present a quantitative assessment of the impact a future electron-ion collider will have on determinations of helicity quark and gluon densities and their contributions to the proton spin. Our results are obtained by performing a series of global QCD analyses at next-to-leading order accuracy based on realistic sets of pseudo-data for the inclusive and semi-inclusive deep-inelastic scattering of longitudinally polarized electrons and protons at different, conceivable center-of-mass system energies.
We identify quark and gluon helicity-flip distributions defined between nucleon states of unequal momenta. The evolution of these distributions with change of renormalization scale is calculated in the leading-logarithmic approximation. The helicity-flip gluon distributions do not mix with any quark distribution and are thus a unique signature of gluons in the nucleon. Their contribution to the generalized virtual Compton process is obtained both in the form of a factorization theorem and an operator product expansion. In deeply virtual Compton scattering, they can be probed through distinct a…
We give a brief overview of the General Parton Distributions(GPDs), including their properties, connections to conventional quantities, and relationships to physical observables. We also perform a systematic analysis on the non-forward matrix elements of twist-two quark and gluon helicity-flip operators and explain their relationships to the GPDs. We systematically count the number of independent nucleon form factors in non-forward scattering (of matrix elements of these operators), by matching the allowed quantum numbers with their crossing channel counterparts and time reversal symmetry cons…
We derive simple relations between the polarized and unpolarized valence quark distributions in a light-cone SU(6) quark-spectator model for nucleons. The explicit x-dependent Wigner rotation effect for the light-flavor quarks is calculated. It is shown that the mass difference between the scalar and vector spectators could reproduce the up and down valence quark asymmetry that accounts for the observed ratio $F_2^{n}/F_2^{p}$. The proton, neutron, and deuteron polarization asymmetries, $A_1^p$, $A_1^n$, and $A_1^d$, are in agreement with the available data by taking into account the Wigner ro…
We present an initiatory study of quark helicity flip generalized parton distributions (GPDs) in n_f=2 lattice QCD, based on clover-improved Wilson fermions for a large number of coupling constants and pion masses. Quark helicity flip GPDs yield essential information on the transverse spin structure of the nucleon. In this work, we show first results on their lowest moments and dipole masses and study the corresponding chiral and continuum extrapolations.
The unpolarized, helicity and transversity parton distribution functions of the nucleon are studied within a convolution model where the bare nucleon is dressed by its virtual meson cloud. Using light-front time-ordered perturbation theory, the Fock states of the physical nucleon are expanded in a series involving a bare nucleon and two-particle, meson-baryon, states. The bare baryons and mesons are described with light-front wave functions (LFWFs) for the corresponding valence-parton components. Using a representation in terms of overlap of LFWFs, the role of the non-perturbative antiquark de…
We study the helicity distributions of light flavor quark-antiquark ($q \bar{q}$) pairs in the nucleon sea. The valence quarks are handled by adopting the light-cone SU(6) quark-spectator-diquark model and the sea $q \bar{q}$ pairs are treated from statistical consideration by introducing the helicity suppression factors $l_q(x)$ and $\bar l_q(x)$ to parametrize the helicity distributions of q-flavor sea quark and antiquark respectively, while $Δl_q(x)=l_q(x)-\bar l_q(x)$ represents a combined effect of helicity contribution due to sea $q \bar{q}$ pairs. From fitting the nucleon polarization a…
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…
We present a new analysis of the helicity parton distributions of the nucleon. The analysis takes into account the available data from inclusive and semi-inclusive polarized deep inelastic scattering, as well as from polarized pp scattering at RHIC. For the first time, all theoretical calculations are performed fully at next-to-leading order (NLO) of perturbative QCD, using a method that allows to incorporate the NLO corrections in a very fast and efficient way in the analysis. We find evidence for a rather small gluon polarization in the nucleon, over a limited region of momentum fraction, an…
It is shown that the latest results from NMC and E665 on the $F_2^A(x)/F_2^{D}(x)$ obtained in the shadowing region, bring new evidence of the universal $A$ -- dependence of distorsions of a free nucleon structure function by nuclear medium. The universality holds in the entire $x$ -range and can be explained as a saturation of the distortions of the parton distributions in a four-nucleon system.
We combine the six-dimensional helicity formalism of Cheung and O'Connell with D-dimensional generalized unitarity to obtain a new formalism for computing one-loop amplitudes in dimensionally regularized QCD. With this procedure, we simultaneously obtain the pieces that are constructible from four-dimensional unitarity cuts and the rational pieces that are missed by them, while retaining a helicity formalism. We illustrate the procedure using four- and five-point one-loop amplitudes in QCD, including examples with external fermions. We also demonstrate the technique's effectiveness in next-to-…
We report progress on the development of Perturbative Integral Representation Ansätze to compute the nucleon Faddeev Wave function, using an explicit quark-diquark picture. Our formalism is able to handle non-pointlike diquark and to mimic the strong, dynamical correlations observed when solving the Faddeev Equation. We then project the wave function in order to compute the leading-twist Parton Distribution Amplitude.
Valence double parton distribution functions of the nucleon are evaluated in the framework of a simple model, where the conservation of the longitudinal momentum is taken into account. The leading-order DGLAP QCD evolution from the low quark-model scale to higher renormalization scales is carried out via the Mellin moments of the distributions. Results of the valence quark correlation function show that in general the double distributions cannot be approximated as a product of the single-particle distributions.
We implement a Monte Carlo sampling strategy to extract helicity parton densities and their uncertainties from a reference set of longitudinally polarized scattering data, chosen to be that used in the DSSV14 global analysis. Instead of adopting the simplest possible functional forms for the helicity parton distributions and imposing certain restrictions on their parameter space in order to constrain them, we employ redundant, flexible parametrizations and fit them to a large number of Monte Carlo replicas of the existing data. The optimum fit and its uncertainty estimates are then assumed to …
In this work, we will evaluate the nucleon helicity flip form factor at the limit of large momentum transfer. Hereby, we will study the exchange of one and two virtual photons separately. For the calculation of the scattering amplitudes and nucleon transition probability matrix elements, we combine QCD perturbation theory with an expansion in nucleon distribution amplitudes. Using the combination of leading and sub-leading twist nucleon distribution amplitudes, one obtains the desired form factor. Using this technique, we will obtain a divergent result for the form factor. Nevertheless, the st…
The generalized parton distributions (GPDs) offer a window on three-dimensional imaging of the nucleon, providing understanding of how the fundamental properties of the nucleon, such as its mass and spin, arise from the underlying quark and gluon degrees of freedom. In this work, we present the first lattice calculation of the nucleon isovector helicity GPD at physical pion mass, using an $a \approx 0.09$ fm lattice ensemble with 2+1+1 flavors of highly improved staggered quarks generated by MILC Collaboration. We perform the GPD calculation in Breit frame using averaged nucleon boost momentum…
We present the first lattice-QCD calculation of the isovector polarized parton distribution functions (both helicity and transversity) using the large-momentum effective field theory (LaMET) approach for direct Bjorken-$x$ dependence. We first review the detailed steps of the procedure in the unpolarized case, then generalize to the helicity and transversity cases. We also derive a new mass-correction formulation for all three cases. We then compare the effects of each finite-momentum correction using lattice data calculated at $M_π\approx 310$ MeV. Finally, we discuss the implications of thes…
A brief summary on the Wigner rotation effect in the understanding of the proton spin ``crisis" related with the Ellis-Jaffe sum rule violation, and on the proton-neutron isospin symmetry breaking explanation of the Gottfried sum rule violation. The proton spin could be fully provided by the spin sum of quarks if one considers the Wigner rotation effect in the measured quark helicity distributions.
We compute the helicity skewed quark distributions $\widetilde{H}$ and $\widetilde{E}$ in the chiral quark-soliton model of the nucleon. This model emphasizes correctly the role of spontaneously broken chiral symmetry in structure of nucleon. It is based on the large-N_c picture of the nucleon as a soliton of the effective chiral lagrangian and allows to calculate the leading twist quark- and antiquark distributions at a low normalization point. We discuss the role of chiral symmetry in the helicity skewed quark distributions $\widetilde{H}$ and $\widetilde{E}$. We show that generalization of …
We present the first numerical results for the two-loop helicity amplitudes for the scattering of four partons and a W-boson in QCD. We use a finite field sampling method to reduce directly from Feynman diagrams to the coefficients of a set of master integrals after applying integration-by-parts identities. Since the basis of master integrals is not yet fully known analytically, we identify a set of master integrals with a simple divergence structure using local numerator insertions. This allows for accurate numerical evaluation of the amplitude using sector decomposition methods.
We introduce photon and gluon propagators in which the scalar polarization component is subtracted systematically by making use of the BRST invariance of the off-shell vector boson created from physical on-shell states. The propagator has the light-cone gauge form, where the spacial component of the gauge vector points along the negative of the off-shell vector boson momentum. We call the gauge as parton-shower gauge, since in collinear configurations the absolute value squared of each Feynman amplitude reproduces all the singular behaviors of the corresponding parton shower in this gauge. We …
We present a next-to-leading order QCD calculation of the cross section and longitudinal spin asymmetry in single-inclusive charged-lepton production, pp -> l X, at RHIC, where the lepton is produced in the decay of an electroweak gauge boson. Our calculation is presented in terms of a multi-purpose Monte-Carlo integration program that may be readily used to include experimental spin asymmetry data in a global analysis of helicity parton densities. We perform a toy global analysis, studying the impact of anticipated RHIC data on our knowledge about the polarized anti-quark distributions.
The quark transversity distribution inside nucleon is less understood than the quark unpolarized and helicity distributions inside nucleon. In particular, it is important to know clearly why the quark helicity and transversity distributions are different. We investigate the origin of their discrepancy.
We use the spinor helicity formalism to calculate the cross section for production of three partons of a given polarization in Deep Inelastic Scattering (DIS) off proton and nucleus targets at small Bjorken x. The target proton or nucleus is treated as a classical color field (shock wave) from which the produced partons scatter multiple times. We reported our result for the final expression for the production cross section and studied the azimuthal angular correlations of the produced partons in [1]. Here we provide the full details of the calculation of the production cross section using the …
We perform a systematic analysis on the off-forward matrix elements of the twist-two quark and gluon helicity-flip operators. By matching the allowed quantum numbers and their crossing channel counterparts (a method developed by Ji & Lebed), we systematically count the number of independent nucleon form factors in off-forward scattering of matrix elements of these quark and gluon spin-flip operators. In particular, we find that the numbers of independent nucleon form factors twist-2, helicity flip quark (gluon) operators are $2n-1$ ($2n-5$) if $n$ is odd, and $2n-2$ ($2n-6$) if $n$ is even, wi…
We studied the impact of future Electron Ion Collider inclusive and semi-inclusive polarized deep inelastic scattering data will have on the determination of the helicity parton distributions. Supplementing the Monte Carlo sampling variant of the DSSV14 analysis with pseudo-data on polarized inclusive and semi-inclusive electron-proton deep inelastic scattering with updated uncertainty estimates and for two different center-of-mass-system energies, $\sqrt{s}=44.7$ GeV and $\sqrt{s}=141.4$ GeV respectively, and on inclusive electron-helium collisions at $\sqrt{s}=115.2$ GeV, we find a remarkabl…
It is shown that $Λ$-hyperon fragmentation in charged lepton deep inelastic scattering (DIS) on a polarized nucleon target can provide sensitive information concerning the quark helicity and transversity distributions for both nucleon and $Λ$-hyperon at large $x$. Numerical predictions are given for the spin transfers of the produced $Λ$, when the target nucleon is polarized either longitudinally or transversely, and with the nucleon and $Λ$ quark distributions evaluated both in an SU(6) quark-spectator-diquark model and in a perturbative QCD (pQCD) based model. It is also shown that the predi…
I study the impact of recent measurements performed at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider on the determination of helicity-dependent parton distribution functions of the proton. Specifically, I consider: preliminary data on longitudinally single-spin asymmetries for $W$-boson production recorded by the STAR experiment during the 2013 run at a center-of-mass energy $\sqrt{s}=510$ GeV; data on longitudinally double-spin asymmetries for di-jet production recorded by the STAR experiment during the 2009 run at $\sqrt{s}=200$ GeV; and data on longitudinally double-spin asymmetries for neutral pion …
Using heavy baryon chiral perturbation theory we study the leading chiral corrections to the complete set of nucleon generalized parton distributions (GPDs). We compute the leading quark mass and momentum transfer dependence of the moments of nucleon GPDs through the nucleon off-forward twist-2 matrix elements. These results are then applied to get insight on the GPDs and their impact parameter space distributions.
We computed twist-4 part of the photon spin-flip amplitude in deeply virtual Compton scattering on a nucleon in the Wandzura-Wilczek approximation. We found a factorizable contribution, which arises from photon scattering on quarks with non-zero angular momentum along the collision axis. As the genuine twist-2 amplitude arises at the NLO, for moderate virtualities of the hard photon, $Q^2 \le 10$ GeV$^2$, kinematical twist-4 correction can give numerically important contribution to the photon helicity-flip amplitude.
Generalized parton distributions have been introduced in recent years as a suitable theoretical tool to study the structure of the nucleon. Unifying the concepts of parton distributions and hadronic form factors, they provide a comprehensive framework for describing the quark and gluon structure of the nucleon. In this review their formal properties and modeling are discussed, summarizing the most recent developments in the phenomenological description of these functions. The status of available data is also presented.
We present a systematic study of the proton spin structure in terms of measurable parton distributions. For a transversely-polarizedproton, we derive a polarization sum rule from the leading generalized parton distributions appearing in hard exclusive processes. For a longitudinally-polarized proton, we obtain a helicity decomposition from well-known quark and gluon helicity distributions and orbital angular-momentum contributions. The latter is shown to be related to measurable subleading generalized parton distributions and quantum-phase space Wigner distributions.
Generalized parton distributions (GPDs) with purely transverse momentum transfer can be interpreted as Fourier transforms of the distribution of partons in impact parameter space. The helicity-flip GPD $E(x,0,-\Dps)$ is related to the distortion of parton distribution functions in impact parameter space if the target is not a helicity eigenstate, but has some transverse polarization. This transverse distortion can be used to develop an intuitive explanation for various transverse single spin asymmetries.
