arXiv subjects

S. J. Brodsky

Publications and source records attributed to S. J. Brodsky.

At least 73 records · Page 4Linked to original sources

arXiv2006

Hadron Optics: Diffraction Patterns in Deeply Virtual Compton Scattering

We show that the Fourier transform of the Deeply Virtual Compton Scattering (DVCS) amplitude with respect to the skewness variable $ζ$ at fixed invariant momentum transfer squared $t$ provides a unique way to visualize the structure of the target hadron in the boost-invariant longitudinal coordinate space. The results are analogous to the diffractive scattering of a wave in optics. As a specific example, we utilize the quantum fluctuations of a fermion state at one loop in QED to obtain the behavior of the DVCS amplitude for electron-photon scattering. We then simulate the wavefunctions for a hadron by differentiating the above LFWFs with respect to $M^2$ and study the corresponding DVCS amplitudes in light-front longitudinal space. In both cases we observe that the diffractive patterns in the longitudinal variable conjugate to $ζ$ sharpen and the positions of the first minima move in with increasing momentum transfer. For fixed $t$, higher minima appear at positions which are integral multiples of the lowest minimum. Both these observations strongly support the analogy with diffraction in optics.

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arXiv2006

Discrete Symmetries on the Light Front and a General Relation Connecting Nucleon Electric Dipole and Anomalous Magnetic Moments

We consider the electric dipole form factor, F_3(q^2), as well as the Dirac and Pauli form factors, F_1(q^2) and F_2(q^2), of the nucleon in the light-front formalism. We derive an exact formula for F_3(q^2) to complement those known for F_1(q^2) and F_2(q^2). We derive the light-front representation of the discrete symmetry transformations and show that time-reversal- and parity-odd effects are captured by phases in the light-front wave functions. We thus determine that the contributions to F_2(q^2) and F_3(q^2), Fock state by Fock state, are related, independent of the fundamental mechanism through which CP violation is generated. Our relation is not specific to the nucleon, but, rather, is true of spin-1/2 systems in general, be they lepton or baryon. The empirical values of the anomalous magnetic moments, in concert with empirical bounds on the associated electric dipole moments, can better constrain theories of CP violation. In particular, we find that the neutron and proton electric dipole moments echo the isospin structure of the anomalous magnetic moments, kappa^n ~ - kappa^p.

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arXiv2005

Scaling properties of high p_T inclusive hadron production

We analyze the scaling properties of inclusive hadron production in proton-proton and in heavy ion collisions from fixed target to collider energies. At large transverse momentum p_T, the invariant cross section exhibits a power-like behavior Ed^3σ/d^3p\propto p_T^{-n} at fixed transverse x, x_T=2p_T/\sqrt{s}, and fixed center-of-mass scattering angle θ_{cm}. Knowledge of the exponent n allows one to draw conclusions about the production mechanisms of hadrons, which are poorly known, even at high p_T. We find that high-p_T hadrons are produced by different mechanisms at fixed-target and collider energies. For pions, higher-twist subprocesses where the pion is produced directly dominate at fixed target energy, while leading-twist partonic scattering plus fragmentation is the most important mechanism at collider energies. High-p_T baryons on the other hand appear to be produced by higher-twist mechanisms at all available energies. The higher-twist mechanism of direct proton production can be verified experimentally by testing whether high p_T protons are produced as single hadrons without accompanying secondaries. In addition, we find that medium-induced gluon radiation in heavy ion collisions can violate scaling.

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arXiv2005

Hadron Spectroscopy and Wavefunctions in QCD and the AdS/CFT Correspondence

The AdS/CFT correspondence has led to important insights into the properties of quantum chromodynamics even though QCD is a broken conformal theory. A holographic model based on a truncated AdS space can be used to obtain the hadronic spectrum of light $q \bar q, qqq$ and $gg$ bound states. Specific hadrons are identified by the correspondence of string modes with the dimension of the interpolating operator of the hadron's valence Fock state, including orbital angular momentum excitations. The predicted mass spectrum is linear $M \propto L$ at high orbital angular momentum. Since only one parameter, the QCD scale $Λ_{QCD}$, is introduced, the agreement with the pattern of physical states is remarkable. In particular, the ratio of $Δ$ to nucleon trajectories is determined by the ratio of zeros of Bessel functions. One can also use the extended AdS/CFT space-time theory to obtain a model for hadronic light-front wavefunctions, thus providing a relativistic description of hadrons in QCD at the amplitude level. The model wavefunctions display confinement at large inter-quark separation and conformal symmetry at short distances. In particular, the scaling and conformal properties of the LFWFs at high relative momenta agree with perturbative QCD. These AdS/CFT model wavefunctions could be used as an initial ansatz for a variational treatment of the light-front QCD Hamiltonian. Hadron form factors in both the space-like and time-like regions are also predicted.

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arXiv2005

Novel Aspects of Hard Diffraction in QCD

Initial- and final-state interactions from gluon-exchange, normally neglected in the parton model have a profound effect in QCD hard-scattering reactions, leading to leading-twist single-spin asymmetries, diffractive deep inelastic scattering, diffractive hard hadronic reactions, and nuclear shadowing and antishadowing--leading-twist physics not incorporated in the light-front wavefunctions of the target computed in isolation. I also discuss the use of diffraction to materialize the Fock states of a hadronic projectile and test QCD color transparency.

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arXiv2005

Two-boson truncation of Pauli-Villars-regulated Yukawa theory

We apply light-front quantization, Pauli-Villars regularization, and numerical techniques to the nonperturbative solution of the dressed-fermion problem in Yukawa theory in 3+1 dimensions. The solution is developed as a Fock-state expansion truncated to include at most one fermion and two bosons. The basis includes a negative-metric heavy boson and a negative-metric heavy fermion in order to provide the necessary cancellations of ultraviolet divergences. The integral equations for the Fock-state wave functions are solved by reducing them to effective one-boson--one-fermion equations for eigenstates with J_z=1/2. The equations are converted to a matrix equation with a specially tuned quadrature scheme, and the lowest mass state is obtained by diagonalization. Various properties of the dressed-fermion state are then computed from the nonperturbative light-front wave functions. This work is a major step in our development of Pauli-Villars regularization for the nonperturbative solution of four-dimensional field theories and represents a significant advance in the numerical accuracy of such solutions.

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arXiv2005

Constraints on proton structure from precision atomic physics measurements

Ground-state hyperfine splittings in hydrogen and muonium are very well measured. Their difference, after correcting for magnetic moment and reduced mass effects, is due solely to proton structure--the large QED contributions for a pointlike nucleus essentially cancel. The rescaled hyperfine difference depends on the Zemach radius, a fundamental measure of the proton, computed as an integral over a product of electric and magnetic proton form factors. The determination of the Zemach radius, (1.043 +/- 0.016) fm, from atomic physics tightly constrains fits to accelerator measurements of proton form factors. Conversely, we can use muonium data to extract an ``experimental'' value for QED corrections to hydrogenic hyperfine data; we find that measurement and theory are consistent.

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arXiv2005

Hard diffraction from parton rescattering in QCD

We analyze the QCD dynamics of diffractive deep inelastic scattering. The presence of a rapidity gap between the target and diffractive system requires that the target remnant emerges in a color singlet state, which we show is made possible by the soft rescattering of the struck quark. This rescattering is described by the path-ordered exponential (Wilson line) in the expression for the parton distribution function of the target. The multiple scattering of the struck parton via instantaneous interactions in the target generates dominantly imaginary diffractive amplitudes, giving rise to an "effective pomeron" exchange. The pomeron is not an intrinsic part of the proton but a dynamical effect of the interaction. This picture also applies to diffraction in hadron-initiated processes. Due to the different color environment the rescattering is different in virtual photon- and hadron-induced processes, explaining the observed non-universality of diffractive parton distributions. This framework provides a theoretical basis for the phenomenologically successful Soft Color Interaction model which includes rescattering effects and thus generates a variety of final states with rapidity gaps. We discuss developments of the SCI model to account for the color coherence features of the underlying subprocesses.

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arXiv2004

Light-Front QCD

In these lectures, I survey a number of applications of light-front methods to hadron and nuclear physics phenomenology and dynamics, Light-front Fock-state wavefunctions provide a frame-independent representation of hadrons in terms of their fundamental quark and gluon degrees of freedom. Nonperturbative methods for computing LFWFs in QCD are discussed, including string/gauge duality which predicts the power-law fall-off at high momentum transfer of light-front Fock-state hadronic wavefunctions with an arbitrary number of constituents and orbital angular momentum. The AdS/CFT correspondence has important implications for hadron phenomenology in the conformal limit, including an all-orders derivation of counting rules for exclusive processes. One can also compute the hadronic spectrum of near-conformal QCD assuming a truncated AdS/CFT space. The quantum fluctuations represented by the light-front Fock expansion leads to novel QCD phenomena such as color transparency, intrinsic heavy quark distributions, diffractive dissociation, and hidden-color components of nuclear wavefunctions. A new test of hidden color in deuteron photodisintegration is proposed. The origin of leading-twist phenomena such as the diffractive component of deep inelastic scattering, single-spin asymmetries, nuclear shadowing and antishadowing is also discussed; these phenomena cannot be described by light-front wavefunctions of the target computed in isolation. Part of the anomalous NuTeV results for the weak mixing angle could be due to the non-universality of nuclear antishadowing for charged and neutral currents.

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arXiv2004

New Results in Light-Front Phenomenology

The light-front quantization of gauge theories such as QCD in light-cone gauge provides a frame-independent wavefunction representation of relativistic bound states, simple forms for current matrix elements, explicit unitarity, and a trivial vacuum. The freedom to choose the light-like quantization four-vector provides an explicitly covariant formulation of light-front quantization and can be used to determine the analytic structure of light-front wave functions and to define a kinematical definition of angular momentum. The AdS/CFT correspondence of large $N_C$ supergravity theory in higher-dimensional anti-de Sitter space with supersymmetric QCD in 4-dimensional space-time has interesting implications for hadron phenomenology in the conformal limit, including an all-orders demonstration of counting rules for exclusive processes. String/gauge duality also predicts the QCD power-law behavior of light-front Fock-state hadronic wavefunctions with arbitrary orbital angular momentum at high momentum transfer. The form of these near-conformal wavefunctions can be used as an initial ansatz for a variational treatment of the light-front QCD Hamiltonian. I also briefly review recent analyses which shows that some leading-twist phenomena such as the diffractive component of deep inelastic scattering, single-spin asymmetries, nuclear shadowing and antishadowing cannot be computed from the LFWFs of hadrons in isolation.

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arXiv2004

Testing Quantum Chromodynamics with Antiprotons

The antiproton storage ring HESR to be constructed at GSI will open up a new range of perturbative and nonperturbative tests of QCD in exclusive and inclusive reactions. I discuss 21 tests of QCD using antiproton beams which can illuminate novel features of QCD. The proposed experiments include the formation of exotic hadrons, measurements of timelike generalized parton distributions, the production of charm at threshold, transversity measurements in Drell-Yan reactions, and searches for single-spin asymmetries. The interactions of antiprotons in nuclear targets will allow tests of exotic nuclear phenomena such as color transparency, hidden color, reduced nuclear amplitudes, and the non-universality of nuclear antishadowing. The AdS/CFT correspondence of large $N_C$ supergravity theory in higher-dimensional anti-de Sitter space with supersymmetric QCD in 4-dimensional space-time has important implications for hadron phenomenology in the conformal limit, including the nonperturbative derivation of counting rules for exclusive processes and the behavior of structure functions at large $x_{bj}.$ String/gauge duality also predicts the QCD power-law fall-off of light-front Fock-state hadronic wavefunctions with arbitrary orbital angular momentum at high momentum transfer. I also review recent work which shows that the diffractive component of deep inelastic scattering, single spin asymmetries, as well as nuclear shadowing and antishadowing, cannot be computed from the LFWFs of hadrons in isolation.

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arXiv2004

Novel QCD Aspects of Hard Diffraction, Antishadowing, and Single-Spin Asymmetries

It is usually assumed -- following the parton model -- that the leading-twist structure functions measured in deep inelastic lepton-proton scattering are simply the probability distributions for finding quarks and gluons in the target nucleon. In fact, gluon exchange between the outgoing quarks and the target spectators effects the leading-twist structure functions in a profound way, leading to diffractive leptoproduction processes, shadowing and antishadowing of nuclear structure functions, and target spin asymmetries, physics not incorporated in the light-front wavefunctions of the target computed in isolation. In particular, final-state interactions from gluon exchange lead to single-spin asymmetries in semi-inclusive deep inelastic lepton-proton scattering which are not power-law suppressed in the Bjorken limit. The shadowing and antishadowing of nuclear structure functions in the Gribov-Glauber picture is due respectively to the destructive and constructive interference of amplitudes arising from the multiple-scattering of quarks in the nucleus. The effective quark-nucleon scattering amplitude includes Pomeron and Odderon contributions from multi-gluon exchange as well as Reggeon quark-exchange contributions. Part of the anomalous NuTeV result for $\sin^2θ_W$ could be due to the non-universality of nuclear antishadowing for charged and neutral currents. Detailed measurements of the nuclear dependence of individual quark structure functions are thus needed to establish the distinctive phenomenology of shadowing and antishadowing and to make the NuTeV results definitive. I also discuss diffraction dissociation as a tool for resolving hadron substructure Fock state by Fock state and for producing leading heavy quark systems.

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arXiv2004

Novel Aspects of QCD in Leptoproduction

I review several topics in electroproduction which test fundamental aspects of QCD. These include the role of final-state interactions in producing diffractive leptoproduction processes, the shadowing of nuclear structure functions, and target-spin asymmetries. The antishadowing of nuclear structure functions is shown to be quark-flavor specific, suggesting that some part of the anomalous NuTeV result for $\sin^2θ_W$ could be due to the non-universality of nuclear antishadowing for charged and neutral currents. I also discuss the physics of the heavy-quark sea, hidden color in nuclear wavefunctions, and evidence for color transparency for nuclear processes. The AdS/CFT correspondence connecting superstring theory to superconformal gauge theory has important implications for hadron phenomenology in the conformal limit, including an all-orders demonstration of counting rules for hard exclusive processes, as well as determining essential aspects of hadronic light-front wavefunctions.

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arXiv2004

Statistical Physics and Light-Front Quantization

Light-front quantization has important advantages for describing relativistic statistical systems, particularly systems for which boost invariance is essential, such as the fireball created in a heavy ion collisions. In this paper we develop light-front field theory at finite temperature and density with special attention to quantum chromodynamics. We construct the most general form of the statistical operator allowed by the Poincare algebra and show that there are no zero-mode related problems when describing phase transitions. We then demonstrate a direct connection between densities in light-front thermal field theory and the parton distributions measured in hard scattering experiments. Our approach thus generalizes the concept of a parton distribution to finite temperature. In light-front quantization, the gauge-invariant Green's functions of a quark in a medium can be defined in terms of just 2-component spinors and have a much simpler spinor structure than the equal-time fermion propagator. From the Green's function, we introduce the new concept of a light-front density matrix, whose matrix elements are related to forward and to off-diagonal parton distributions. Furthermore, we explain how thermodynamic quantities can be calculated in discretized light-cone quantization, which is applicable at high chemical potential and is not plagued by the fermion-doubling problem.

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arXiv2004

Finite-temperature field theory on the light front

The formulation of statistical physics using light-front quantization, instead of conventional equal-time boundary conditions, has important advantages for describing relativistic statistical systems, such as heavy ion collisions. We develop light-front field theory at finite temperature and density with special attention to quantum chromodynamics. First, we construct the most general form of the statistical operator allowed by the Poincare algebra. In light-front quantization, the Green's functions of a quark in a medium can be defined in terms of just 2-component spinors and does not lead to doublers in the transverse directions. Since the theory is non-local along the light cone, we use causality arguments to construct a solution to the related zero-mode problem. A seminal property of light-front Green's functions is that they are related to parton densities in coordinate space. Namely, the diagonal and off-diagonal parton distributions measured in hard scattering experiments can be interpreted as light-front density matrices.

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arXiv2004

A nonperturbative calculation of the electron's magnetic moment

In principle, the complete spectrum and bound-state wave functions of a quantum field theory can be determined by finding the eigenvalues and eigensolutions of its light-cone Hamiltonian. One of the challenges in obtaining nonperturbative solutions for gauge theories such as QCD using light-cone Hamiltonian methods is to renormalize the theory while preserving Lorentz symmetries and gauge invariance. For example, the truncation of the light-cone Fock space leads to uncompensated ultraviolet divergences. We present two methods for consistently regularizing light-cone-quantized gauge theories in Feynman and light-cone gauges: (1) the introduction of a spectrum of Pauli-Villars fields which produces a finite theory while preserving Lorentz invariance; (2) the augmentation of the gauge-theory Lagrangian with higher derivatives. In the latter case, which is applicable to light-cone gauge (A^+ = 0), the A^- component of the gauge field is maintained as an independent degree of freedom rather than a constraint. Finite-mass Pauli-Villars regulators can also be used to compensate for neglected higher Fock states. As a test case, we apply these regularization procedures to an approximate nonperturbative computation of the anomalous magnetic moment of the electron in QED as a first attempt to meet Feynman's famous challenge.

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arXiv2004

High Energy Photon-Photon Collisions at a Linear Collider

High intensity back-scattered laser beams will allow the efficient conversion of a substantial fraction of the incident lepton energy into high energy photons, thus significantly extending the physics capabilities of an electron-electron or electron-positron linear collider. The annihilation of two photons produces C=+ final states in virtually all angular momentum states. The annihilation of polarized photons into the Higgs boson determines its fundamental two-photon coupling as well as determining its parity. Other novel two-photon processes include the two-photon production of charged lepton pairs, vector boson pairs, as well as supersymmetric squark and slepton pairs and Higgstrahlung. The one-loop box diagram leads to the production of pairs of neutral particles. High energy photon-photon collisions can also provide a remarkably background-free laboratory for studying possibly anomalous $W W$ collisions and annihilation. In the case of QCD, each photon can materialize as a quark anti-quark pair which interact via multiple gluon exchange. The diffractive channels in photon-photon collisions allow a novel look at the QCD pomeron and odderon. Odderon exchange can be identified by looking at the heavy quark asymmetry. In the case of electron-photon collisions, one can measure the photon structure functions and its various components. Exclusive hadron production processes in photon-photon collisions test QCD at the amplitude level and measure the hadron distribution amplitudes which control exclusive semi-leptonic and two-body hadronic B-decays.

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arXiv2004

Partonic calculation of the two-photon exchange contribution to elastic electron-proton scattering at large momentum transfer

We estimate the two-photon exchange contribution to elastic electron-proton scattering at large momentum transfer through the scattering off a parton in the proton. We relate the process on the nucleon to the generalized parton distributions which also enter in other wide angle scattering processes. We find that when taking the polarization transfer determinations of the form factors as input, adding in the 2 photon correction, does reproduce the Rosenbluth data.

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