Searcharxiv⌕ Search

arXiv subjects

C. Lorcé

Publications and source records attributed to C. Lorcé.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
arXiv2021

A Fixed-Target Programme at the LHC: Physics Case and Projected Performances for Heavy-Ion, Hadron, Spin and Astroparticle Studies

We review the context, the motivations and the expected performances of a comprehensive and ambitious fixed-target program using the multi-TeV proton and ion LHC beams. We also provide a detailed account of the different possible technical implementations ranging from an internal wire target to a full dedicated beam line extracted with a bent crystal. The possibilities offered by the use of the ALICE and LHCb detectors in the fixed-target mode are also reviewed.

hep-ex↗
arXiv2021

Phenomenological assessment of proton mechanical properties from deeply virtual Compton scattering

A unique feature of generalised parton distributions is their relation to the QCD energy-momentum tensor. In particular, they provide access to the mechanical properties of the proton i.e. the distributions of pressure and shear stress induced by its quark and gluon structure. In principle the pressure distribution can be experimentally determined in a model-independent way from a dispersive analysis of deeply virtual Compton scattering data through the measurement of the subtraction constant. In practice the kinematic coverage and accuracy of existing experimental data make this endeavour a challenge. Elaborating on recent global fits of deeply virtual Compton scattering measurements using artificial neural networks, our analysis presents the current knowledge on this subtraction constant and assesses the impact of the most frequent systematic assumptions made in this field of research. This study will pave the way for future works when more precise data will become available, e.g. obtained in the foreseen electron-ion colliders EIC and EIcC.

hep-ph↗
arXiv2019

The angular momentum decomposition in the scalar diquark model

One of the challenges of hadronic physics is to fully understand the structure of the proton. In particular, there is nowadays a great interest in the decomposition of its total angular momentum into orbital angular momentum and intrinsic spin, as well as identifying contributions from valence quarks, sea quarks and gluons. The most common decompositions of angular momentum are the Jaffe-Manohar (canonical) and Ji (kinetic) decompositions, which differ in the way contributions are attributed to quarks and gluons. Using perturbation theory, explicit one-loop calculations found that the difference between such decompositions vanishes. We justify within the diquark model in QED that the difference appears at two-loop level, supporting the interpretation of such a difference as originating from the torque exerted by the spectator system on the struck quark.

hep-ph↗
arXiv2019

Spin Physics with a fixed-target experiment at the LHC

The multi-TeV proton and ion beams of the LHC would allow for the most energetic fixed-target experiment ever. In particular, $pp$, $p$d and $p$A collisions could be performed at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}$ = 115~GeV, as well as Pb$p$ and PbA collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}$ = 72~GeV, in a parasitic way by making use of the already existing LHCb and ALICE detectors in fixed-target mode. This would offer the possibility to carry out a ground-breaking physics program, to study the nucleon and nuclear structure at high $x$, the spin content of the nucleon and the phases of the nuclear matter from a new rapidity viewpoint. In this talk I focus on the spin physics axis of the full program developed so far by the AFTER@LHC study group.

hep-ph↗
arXiv2019

High luminosity fixed-target experiment at the LHC

By extracting the beam with a bent crystal or by using an internal gas target, the multi-TeV proton and lead LHC beams allow one to perform the most energetic fixed-target experiments ever and to study $pp$, $p$d and $p$A collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}=115$ GeV and Pb$p$ and PbA collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}=72$ GeV with high precision and modern detection techniques. Such studies would address open questions in the domain of the nucleon and nucleus partonic structure at high-$x$, quark-gluon plasma and, by using longitudinally or transversally polarised targets, spin physics. In this paper, we will review the technical solutions to obtain a high-luminosity fixed-target experiment at the LHC and will discuss their possible implementations with the ALICE and LHCb detectors.

hep-ex↗
arXiv2018

A fixed-target programme at the LHC for heavy-ion, hadron, spin and astroparticle physics: AFTER@LHC

Thanks to its multi-TeV LHC proton and lead beams, the LHC complex allows one to perform the most energetic fixed-target experiments ever and to study with high precision pp, pd and pA collisions at sqrt(s_NN) = 115 GeV and Pbp and PbA collisions at sqrt(s_NN) = 72 GeV. We present a selection of feasibility studies for the production of quarkonia, open heavy-flavor mesons as well as light-flavor hadrons in pA and PbA collisions using the LHCb and ALICE detectors in a fixed-target mode.

nucl-ex↗
arXiv2017

Physics perspectives with AFTER@LHC (A Fixed Target ExpeRiment at LHC)

AFTER@LHC is an ambitious fixed-target project in order to address open questions in the domain of proton and neutron spins, Quark Gluon Plasma and high-$x$ physics, at the highest energy ever reached in the fixed-target mode. Indeed, thanks to the highly energetic 7 TeV proton and 2.76 A.TeV lead LHC beams, center-of-mass energies as large as $\sqrt{s_{NN}}$ = 115 GeV in pp/pA and $\sqrt{s_{NN}}$ = 72 GeV in AA can be reached, corresponding to an uncharted energy domain between SPS and RHIC. We report two main ways of performing fixed-target collisions at the LHC, both allowing for the usage of one of the existing LHC experiments. In these proceedings, after discussing the projected luminosities considered for one year of data taking at the LHC, we will present a selection of projections for light and heavy-flavour production.

hep-ex↗
arXiv2016

Transverse pion structure beyond leading twist in constituent models

The understanding of the pion structure as described in terms of transverse-momentum dependent parton distribution functions (TMDs) is of importance for the interpretation of currently ongoing Drell-Yan experiments with pion beams. In this work we discuss the description of pion TMDs beyond leading twist in a pion model formulated in the light-front constituent framework. For comparison, we also review and derive new results for pion TMDs in the bag and spectator models.

hep-ph↗
arXiv2015

Multipole decomposition of the nucleon transverse phase space

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-momentum spaces, we find a natural link with the corresponding multipole parametrizations for the generalized parton distributions and transverse-momentum dependent parton distributions, respectively. Finally, we show results for all the distributions in the transverse phase space, introducing a representation that allows one to visualize simultaneously the multipole structures in both the transverse-position and transverse-momentum spaces.

hep-ph↗
arXiv2015

Transverse-momentum dependent parton distribution functions beyond leading twist in quark models

Higher-twist transverse momentum dependent parton distribution functions (TMDs) are a valuable probe of the quark-gluon dynamics in the nucleon, and play a vital role for the explanation of sizable azimuthal asymmetries in hadron production from unpolarized and polarized deep-inelastic lepton-nucleon scattering observed in experiments at CERN, DESY and Jefferson Lab. The associated observables are challenging to interpret, and still await a complete theoretical explanation, which makes guidance from models valuable. In this work we establish the formalism to describe unpolarized higher-twist TMDs in the light-front framework based on a Fock-space expansion of the nucleon state in terms of free on-shell parton states. We derive general expressions and present numerical results in a practical realization of this picture provided by the light-front constituent quark model. We review several other popular quark model approaches including free quark ensemble, bag, spectator and chiral quark-soliton model. We discuss how higher-twist TMDs are described in these models, and obtain results for several TMDs not discussed previously in literature. This study contributes to the understanding of non-perturbative properties of subleading twist TMDs. The results from the light-front constituent quark model are also compared to available phenomenological information, showing a satisfactory agreement.

hep-ph↗
arXiv2015

Studies of Transverse-Momentum-Dependent distributions with A Fixed-Target ExpeRiment using the LHC beams (AFTER@LHC)

We report on the studies of Transverse-Momentum-Dependent distributions (TMDs) at a future fixed-target experiment --AFTER@LHC-- using the $p^+$ or Pb ion LHC beams, which would be the most energetic fixed-target experiment ever performed. AFTER@LHC opens new domains of particle and nuclear physics by complementing collider-mode experiments, in particular those of RHIC and the EIC projects. Both with an extracted beam by a bent crystal or with an internal gas target, the luminosity achieved by AFTER@LHC surpasses that of RHIC by up to 3 orders of magnitude. With an unpolarised target, it allows for measurements of TMDs such as the Boer-Mulders quark distributions and the distribution of unpolarised and linearly polarised gluons in unpolarised protons. Using polarised targets, one can access the quark and gluon Sivers TMDs through single transverse-spin asymmetries in Drell-Yan and quarkonium production. In terms of kinematics, the fixed-target mode combined with a detector covering $η_{\rm lab} \in [1,5]$ allows one to measure these asymmetries at large $x^\uparrow$ in the polarised nucleon.

nucl-ex↗
arXiv2014

Twist-2 Generalized TMDs and the Spin/Orbital Structure of the Nucleon

Generalized transverse-momentum dependent parton distributions (GTMDs) encode the most general parton structure of hadrons. Here we focus on two twist-2 GTMDs which are denoted by $F_{1,4}$ and $G_{1,1}$ in parts of the literature. As already shown previously, both GTMDs have a close relation to orbital angular momentum of partons inside a hadron. However, recently even the mere existence of $F_{1,4}$ and $G_{1,1}$ has been doubted. We explain why this claim does not hold. We support our model-independent considerations by calculating the two GTMDs in the scalar diquark model and in the quark-target model, where we also explicitly check the relation to orbital angular momentum. In addition, we compute $F_{1,4}$ and $G_{1,1}$ at large transverse momentum in perturbative Quantum Chromodynamics and show that they are nonzero.

hep-ph↗
arXiv2013

Structure analysis of the generalized correlator of quark and gluon for a spin-1/2 target

We analyze the structure of generalized off-diagonal and transverse-momentum dependent quark-quark and gluon-gluon correlators for a spin-1/2 hadron. Using the light-front formalism, we provide a parametrization in terms of the parton generalized transverse-momentum dependent distributions that emphasizes the multipole structure of the correlator. The results for the quark-quark correlation functions are consistent with an alternative parametrization given in terms of Lorentz covariant structures. The parametrization for the gluon-gluon generalized correlator is presented for the first time and allows one to introduce new correlation functions which can be relevant for phenomenological applications.

hep-ph↗
arXiv2013

The proton spin decomposition : path dependence and gauge symmetry

We discuss the different types of decomposition of the proton spin. We stress that, despite their lack of uniqueness, the Chen et al. and Wakamatsu decompositions are perfectly measurable. We argue that a large part of the recent controversies boils down to the fact that there actually exist two types of gauge transformations in the Chen et al. approach, where physical and gauge degrees of freedom of the gauge potential are explicitly separated. By carefully distinguishing these two types of gauge transformations, one can easily understand how the concepts of gauge invariance, Stueckelberg symmetry, path dependence and measurability are linked to each other.

hep-ph↗
arXiv2011

Quark Wigner Distributions

We study the Wigner functions of the nucleon which provide multidimensional images of the quark distributions in phase space and combine in a single picture all the information contained in the generalized parton distributions (GPDs) and the transverse-momentum dependent parton distributions (TMDs). In particular, we present results for the distribution of unpolarized quark in a longitudinally polarized nucleon. Treating this distribution as it was a classical distribution, we also obtain the expectation value of the orbital angular momentum operator and compare the corresponding results from different quark models with the values obtained using alternative definitions of the orbital angular momentum, as given in terms of the GPDs and the TMDs.

hep-ph↗
arXiv2010

Light-Front Densities for Transversely Polarized Hadrons

We discuss the recent interpretation of quark distribution functions in the plane transverse to the light-cone direction. Such a mapping is model independent and allows one to build multidimensional pictures of the hadron and to develop a semi-classical intuition of the quark dynamics. We comment briefly the results obtained from the Form Factors of the nucleon. A generalization to a target with arbitrary spin led to a set of preferred values for the electromagnetic coupling characterizing structureless particles. Generalized polarizabilities can also be interpreted in that frame as the distortion of the charge densities due to an external electromagnetic field. Finally, we present preliminary results for the Generalized Transverse-Momentum dependent Distributions which encode in principle the most complete information about quark distributions.

hep-ph↗
arXiv2010

Light-front interpretation of Proton Generalized Polarizabilities

We extend the recently developed formalism to extract light-front quark charge densities from nucleon form factor data to the deformations of these quark charge densities when applying an external electric field. We show that the resulting induced polarizations can be extracted from proton generalized polarizabilities. The available data for the generalized electric polarizabilitiy of the proton yield a pronounced structure in its induced polarization at large transverse distances, which will be pinned down by forthcoming high precision virtual Compton scattering experiments.

hep-ph↗