Drawing insights from pion parton distributions *
Minghui Ding, Khépani Raya, Daniele Binosi, Lei Chang, C. D. Roberts, S. M. Schmidt
Abstract
Abstract A symmetry-preserving continuum approach to the two valence-body bound-state problem is used to calculate the valence, glue and sea distributions within the pion; unifying them with, inter alia, electromagnetic pion elastic and transition form factors. The analysis reveals the following momentum fractions at the scale , , ; and despite hardening induced by the emergent phenomenon of dynamical chiral symmetry breaking, the valence-quark distribution function, , exhibits the behaviour predicted by quantum chromodynamics (QCD). After evolution to , the prediction for matches that obtained using lattice-regularised QCD. This confluence should both stimulate improved analyses of existing data and aid in planning efforts to obtain new data on the pion distribution functions.