arXiv subjects
Publications and source records attributed to W. Melnitchouk.
We examine the origin of Bloom-Gilman duality and the relationship between resonances and scaling in deep-inelastic scattering. A simple quantum mechanical model is used to illustrate the essential features of Bloom-Gilman duality at low momentum transfer. As an application of local duality, we discuss model-independent relations between structure functions at x ~ 1 and elastic electromagnetic form factors.
Rather than regarding the restriction of current lattice QCD simulations to quark masses that are 5--10 times larger than those observed, we note that this presents a wonderful opportunity to deepen our understanding of QCD. Just as it has been possible to learn a great deal about QCD by treating $N_c$ as a variable, so the study of hadron properties as a function of quark mass is leading us to a much deeper appreciation of hadron structure. As examples we cite recent progress in using the chiral properties of QCD to connect hadron masses, magnetic moments, charge radii and structure functions calculated at large quark masses within lattice QCD with the values observed physically.
While quark-hadron duality is well-established experimentally, the current theoretical understanding of this important phenomenon is quite limited. To expose the essential features of the dynamics behind duality, we use a simple model in which the hadronic spectrum is dominated by narrow resonances made of valence quarks. We qualitatively reproduce the features of duality as seen in electron scattering data within our model. We show that in order to observe duality, it is essential to use the appropriate scaling variable and scaling function. In addition to its great intrinsic interest in connecting the quark-gluon and hadronic pictures, an understanding of quark-hadron duality could lead to important benefits in extending the applicability of scaling into previously inaccessible regions.
Quark-hadron duality addresses some of the most fundamental issues in strong interaction physics, in particular the nature of the transition from the perturbative to non-perturbative regions of QCD. I summarize recent developments in quark-hadron duality in lepton-hadron scattering, and outline how duality can be studied at future high-luminosity facilities such as Jefferson Lab at 12 GeV, or an electron-hadron collider such as EPIC.
We discuss a possible measurement of the ratio of the nucleon structure functions, F2n/F2p, and the ratio of the up to down quark distributions, u/d, at large x, by performing deep inelastic electron scattering from the 3H and 3He mirror nuclei with the 11 GeV upgraded beam of Jefferson Lab. The measurement is expected to be almost free of nuclear effects, which introduce a significant uncertainty in the extraction of these two ratios from deep inelastic scattering off the proton and deuteron. The results are expected to test perturbative and non-perturbative mechanisms of spin-flavor symmetry breaking in the nucleon, and constrain the structure function parameterizations needed for the interpretation of high energy e-p, p-p and p-pbar collider data. The precision of the expected data can also allow for testing competing parameterizations of the nuclear EMC effect and provide valuable constraints on models of its dynamical origin.
We investigate deep inelastic scattering from He-3 and H-3 within a conventional convolution treatment of binding and Fermi motion effects. Using realistic Faddeev wave functions together with a nucleon spectral function, we demonstrate that the free neutron structure function can be extracted in deep-inelastic scattering from A=3 mirror nuclei, with nuclear effects canceling to within 2% for x < 0.85.
We derive the non-analytic chiral behavior of the flavor asymmetry dbar - ubar. Such behavior is a unique characteristic of Goldstone boson loops in chiral theories, including QCD, and establishes the unambiguous role played by the Goldstone boson cloud in the sea of the proton. Generalizing the results to the SU(3) sector, we show that strange chiral loops require that the s - sbar distribution be non-zero.
Asymmetries in the quark momentum distributions in the proton reveal fundamental aspects of strong interaction physics. Differences between u-bar and d-bar quarks in the proton sea provide insight into the dynamics of the pion cloud around the nucleon and the nature of chiral symmetry breaking. Polarized flavor asymmetries allow the effects of pion clouds to be disentangled from those of antisymmetrization. Asymmetries between s and s-bar quark distributions in the nucleon are also predicted from the chiral properties of QCD.
In a recent paper Yang and Bodek extracted the free neutron structure function at large x by extrapolating the density dependence of the nuclear EMC ratios to the deuteron. We clarify why this approach is ill-defined for light nuclei, and introduces a large theoretical bias into the extraction of F_2n at large x.
I review some recent developments in the study of quark flavor distributions in the nucleon, including (i) valence quark distributions and the quark-hadron duality prediction for the x -> 1 d/u ratio (ii) sea quark asymmetries and electromagnetic form factors (iii) strange quarks in the nucleon.
Semi-inclusive electron scattering provides a powerful tool with which to study the spin and flavor distributions in the proton. Greater kinematic coverage at the proposed Electron-Polarized Ion Collider facility will enable the valence d/u ratio to be determined at large x through pion production. At small x, pion production can be used to extract the d-bar/u-bar ratio, complementing existing semi-inclusive measurements by HERMES, and Drell-Yan data from Fermilab. Asymmetries in heavier quark flavors can also be probed by tagging strange and charm hadrons in the final state.
A next-to-leading order analysis of inelastic electroproduction of charm is performed using an interpolating scheme which maps smoothly onto massless QCD evolution at large Q^2 and photon-gluon fusion at small Q^2. In contrast with earlier analyses, this scheme allows the inclusion of quark and target mass effects and heavy quark thresholds, as well as possible non-perturbative, or intrinsic, charm contributions. We find no conclusive evidence in favor of an intrinsic charm component in the nucleon, although several data points which disagree with perturbative QCD expectations will need to be checked by future experiments.
Relativistic corrections to the strange axial form factor are evaluated within a light-cone formalism, taking into account effects due to the breaking of Lorentz covariance associated with the use of one-body currents. Similar corrections are known to also be needed for the magnetic form factor, and we discuss the importance of these for recent data on strange electromagnetic form factors from the HAPPEX Collaboration at Jefferson Lab. The strange vector form factors, the strange axial charge, and the asymmetries in strange quark distributions are shown to be consistently correlated within the chiral cloud model.
We present a comprehensive analysis of the recent data from the E866 experiment at Fermilab on Drell-Yan production in pD and pp collisions, which indicates a non-trivial x-dependence for the asymmetry between u-bar and d-bar quark distributions in the proton. The relatively fast decrease of the asymmetry at large x suggests the important role played by the chiral structure of the nucleon, in particular the pi-N and pi-Delta components of the nucleon wave function. At small x the data require an additional non-chiral component, which may be attributed to the Pauli exclusion principle as first suggested by Field and Feynman.
We explore the feasibility of directly extracting the large-x valence d/u ratio through a measurement of pions in the current fragmentation region of semi-inclusive deep-inelastic scattering from protons.
We review recent experimental and theoretical developments in the study of the sea quark structure of the proton. In the light quark sector, we analyse the recent pp and pD Drell-Yan data from the E866/NuSea experiment at Fermilab, and their implication for the d-bar/u-bar asymmetry in the proton. The current status of the strange content of the proton, including the possible difference between strange and antistrange quark distributions and strangeness form factors, is updated. Finally, we point out the ramifications of non-symmetric charm and anticharm distributions in the nucleon for HERA event rates at large x and Q^2.
We report on progress in the development of a microscopic model for the hyperon-nucleon interaction within the meson-exchange framework, which incorporates both one-meson as well as correlated two-meson exchange contributions. The main new feature of the model is the exchange of two correlated pions or kaons, both in the scalar-isoscalar and the vector-isovector channels. In the scalar channel it provides the main part of the intermediate-range interaction between two baryons, thereby eliminating the need for the fictitious sigma meson, which has been an unavoidable element of effective one-boson-exchange descriptions.
We explore the possibility that the excess neutral and charged current events seen by the H1 and ZEUS Collaborations at HERA at large x and Q^2 could arise from a hard charm component of the nucleon. While the symmetric intrinsic charm hypothesis is unable to account for the HERA anomaly, a non-symmetric charm distribution generated non-perturbatively, for which c-bar is much harder than c, can produce significant enhancement of cross sections at the HERA kinematics.