We present an exploratory study of the gluonic structure of the ϕ meson using lattice QCD (LQCD). This includes the first investigation of gluonic transversity via the leading moment of the twist-two double-helicity-flip gluonic structure function Δ(x,Q2). This structure function only exists for targets of spin J≥1 and does not mix with quark distributions at leading twist, thereby providing a particularly clean probe of gluonic degrees of freedom. We also explore the gluonic analogue of the Soffer bound which relates the helicity flip and non-flip gluonic distributions, finding it to be saturated at the level of 80%. This work sets the stage for more complex LQCD studies of gluonic structure in the nucleon and in light nuclei where Δ(x,Q2) is an 'exotic glue' observable probing gluons in a nucleus not associated with individual nucleons.
@article{arxiv.1606.04505,
title = {Gluonic Transversity from Lattice QCD},
author = {W. Detmold and P. E. Shanahan},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1606.04505},
year = {2017}
}