English

Possible Universal Limit for Valence Parton Distributions

High Energy Physics - Phenomenology 2023-02-17 v3

Abstract

We report the observation of the existence of a possible universal limit for valence parton distributions that should exist once partonic degrees of freedom are relevant for high energy scattering from strongly interacting bound systems like a nucleon, meson or a few nucleon system at very short distances. Our observation is based on the notion that the Bjorken x weighted valence parton distribution function has a peak, xpx_p, that characterizes the average momentum fraction carried out by the valence quarks in the system. Within the residual mean-field model of the valence quark distribution we found that xpx_p has an upper limit: xp12(nV1)x_p \leq {1\over 2(n_V-1)}, where nVn_V is the number of valence quarks which can be considered in the cluster embedded in the strongly interacting environment of the bound system. The existence of such a limit imposes a new constraint on choosing the starting resolution scale Q0Q_0 for PDFs. Our prediction for the nucleon is that xpQQ014x_p\mid_{Q\to Q_0}\le{1\over 4}, which is in agreement with all the available valence PDFs that employ the standard approach for selecting starting Q0Q_0. We also demonstrate how the existence of this limit can be used to check the onset of quark-clusters in short range nucleon correlations in nuclei.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2206.12522,
  title  = {Possible Universal Limit for Valence Parton Distributions},
  author = {Christopher Leon and Misak M. Sargsian},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2206.12522},
  year   = {2023}
}

Comments

Main article 9 pages with 5 figures

R2 v1 2026-06-24T12:03:36.426Z