Pion and Kaon Structure at the Electron-Ion Collider
Abstract
Understanding the origin and dynamics of hadron structure and in turn that of atomic nuclei is a central goal of nuclear physics. This challenge entails the questions of how does the roughly 1 GeV mass-scale that characterizes atomic nuclei appear; why does it have the observed value; and, enigmatically, why are the composite Nambu-Goldstone (NG) bosons in quantum chromodynamics (QCD) abnormally light in comparison? In this perspective, we provide an analysis of the mass budget of the pion and proton in QCD; discuss the special role of the kaon, which lies near the boundary between dominance of strong and Higgs mass-generation mechanisms; and explain the need for a coherent effort in QCD phenomenology and continuum calculations, in exa-scale computing as provided by lattice QCD, and in experiments to make progress in understanding the origins of hadron masses and the distribution of that mass within them. We compare the unique capabilities foreseen at the electron-ion collider (EIC) with those at the hadron-electron ring accelerator (HERA), the only previous electron-proton collider; and describe five key experimental measurements, enabled by the EIC and aimed at delivering fundamental insights that will generate concrete answers to the questions of how mass and structure arise in the pion and kaon, the Standard Model's NG modes, whose surprisingly low mass is critical to the evolution of our Universe.
Cite
@article{arxiv.1907.08218,
title = {Pion and Kaon Structure at the Electron-Ion Collider},
author = {Arlene C. Aguilar and Zafir Ahmed and Christine Aidala and Salina Ali and Vincent Andrieux and John Arrington and Adnan Bashir and Vladimir Berdnikov and Daniele Binosi and Lei Chang and Chen Chen and Muyang Chen and João Pacheco B. C. de Melo and Markus Diefenthaler and Minghui Ding and Rolf Ent and Tobias Frederico and Fei Gao and Ralf W. Gothe and Mohammad Hattawy and Timothy J. Hobbs and Tanja Horn and Garth M. Huber and Shaoyang Jia and Cynthia Keppel and Gastão Krein and Huey-Wen Lin and Cédric Mezrag and Victor Mokeev and Rachel Montgomery and Hervé Moutarde and Pavel Nadolsky and Joannis Papavassiliou and Kijun Park and Ian L. Pegg and Jen-Chieh Peng and Stephane Platchkov and Si-Xue Qin and Khépani Raya and Paul Reimer and David G. Richards and Craig D. Roberts and Jose Rodríguez-Quintero and Nobuo Sato and Sebastian M. Schmidt and Jorge Segovia and Arun Tadepalli and Richard Trotta and Zhihong Ye and Rikutaro Yoshida and Shu-Sheng Xu},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1907.08218},
year = {2020}
}
Comments
16 pages, 12 figures, to appear in the European Physical Journal A - "Hadrons and Nuclei"