The asymptotic behaviour of parton distributions at small and large x

It has been argued from the earliest days of quantum chromodynamics that at asymptotically small values of x the parton distribution functions (PDFs) of the proton behave as xαxα, where the values of αα can be deduced from Regge theory, while at asymptotically large values of x the PDFs behave as (1−x)β(1−x)β, where the values of ββ can be deduced from the Brodsky–Farrar quark counting rules. We critically examine these claims by extracting the exponents αα and ββ from various global fits of parton distributions, analysing their scale dependence, and comparing their values to the naive expectations. We find that for valence distributions both Regge theory and counting rules are confirmed, at least within uncertainties, while for sea quarks and gluons the results are less conclusive. We also compare results from various PDF fits for the structure function ratio Fn2/Fp2F2n/F2p at large x, and caution against unrealistic uncertainty estimates due to overconstrained parametrisations

Resummation of Singlet Parton Evolution at Small x

We propose an improvement of the splitting functions at small x which overcomes the apparent problems encountered by the BFKL approach. We obtain a stable expansion for the x-evolution function chi(M) near M=0 by including in it a sequence of terms derived from the one- and two-loop anomalous dimension gamma. The requirement of momentum conservation is always satisfied. The residual ambiguity on the splitting functions is effectively parameterized in terms of the value of lambda, which fixes the small x asymptotic behaviour x^-lambda of the singlet parton distributions. We derive from this improved evolution function an expansion of the splitting function which leads to good apparent convergence, and to a description of scaling violations valid both at large and small x.Comment: 16 pages, 6 figures, LaTeX with epsfig; final version, to be published in Nucl. Phys. B. A few typos corrected for the recor

Analytic Approaches to the Evolution of Polarised Parton Distributions at Small xx

The $Q^2$ evolution of polarised parton distributions at small $x$ is studied. Various analytic approximations are critically discussed. We compare the full evolution with that obtained from the leading-pole approximation to the splitting functions, and show that the validity of this approximation depends critically on the $x \to 0$ behaviour of the starting distributions. A new analytic solution which is valid at small $x$ is obtained, and its domain of applicability is discussed.Comment: 14 pages, LATeX, 4 figures availabe as .uu-fil

Multiparticle production and quantum chromodynamics

The theory of strong interactions, quantum chromodynamics (QCD), is quite successful in the prediction and description of main features of multiparticle production processes at high energies. The general perturbative QCD approach to these processes (mainly to e+e- -annihilation) is briefly formulated and its problems are discussed. It is shown that the analytical calculations at the parton level with the low-momentum cut-off reproduce experimental data on the hadronic final state in multiparticle production processes at high energies surprisingly accurately even though the perturbative expansion parameter is not very small. Moreover, it is important that the perturbative QCD has been able not only to describe the existing data but also to predict many bright qualitatively new phenomena.Comment: 30 pages, LATEX, 12 Figs available at www.ufn.ru; the review pap er to be published in Physics-Uspekhi 45 (5) (2002

Ioffe-time distributions instead of parton momentum distributions in description of deep inelastic scattering

We argue that parton distributions in coordinate space provide a more natural object for nonperturbative methods compared to the usual momentum distributions in which the physics of different longitudinal distances is being mixed. To illustrate the advantages of the coordinate space formulation, we calculate the coordinate space distributions for valence quarks in the proton using the QCD sum rule approach. A remarkable agreement is found between the calculated and the experimentally measured u-quark distribution up to light-cone distances $\Delta^- = \Delta^0 - \Delta^3$ of order $\sim 1$ fm in the proton rest frame. The calculation for valence d quarks gives much worse results; the reasons for this discrepancy are discussed.Comment: 24 pages plus 13 pages with figures, requires epsf.sty, revised version to appear in Phys.Rev.

Small x Resummation with Quarks: Deep-Inelastic Scattering

We extend our previous results on small-x resummation in the pure Yang--Mills theory to full QCD with nf quark flavours, with a resummed two-by-two matrix of resummed quark and gluon splitting functions. We also construct the corresponding deep-inelastic coefficient functions, and show how these can be combined with parton densities to give fully resummed deep-inelastic structure functions F_2 and F_L at the next-to-leading logarithmic level. We discuss how this resummation can be performed in different factorization schemes, including the commonly used MSbar scheme. We study the importance of the resummation effects by comparison with fixed-order perturbative results, and we discuss the corresponding renormalization and factorization scale variation uncertainties. We find that for x below 0.01 the resummation effects are comparable in size to the fixed order NNLO corrections, but differ in shape. We finally discuss the phenomenological impact of the small-x resummation, specifically in the extraction of parton distribution from present day experiments and their extrapolation to the kinematics relevant for future colliders such as the LHCComment: 45 pages, 16 figures, plain TeX with harvma

Small-x Resummation and HERA Structure Function Data

We apply our systematic NLO small x resummation of singlet splitting functions to the scaling violations of structure functions and compare the results with data. We develop various theoretical tools which are needed in order to relate resummed parton distributions to measurable structure functions, and we present results from a variety of fits to HERA data for the structure functions F_2 and F_L using the resummation. The behaviour of the singlet splitting functions at small x and fixed Q^2 is effectively parametrized as x^{-lambda}. We find that, for lambda small or negative, the resummed description of scaling violations may be phenomenologically as good as or even better than the standard next-to-leading order treatment. However, the best fit gluon density and value of alpha_s can be significantly modified by the resummation.Comment: 40 pages, 15 figures. Final version, to be published in Nucl. Phys. B. Typos corrected in eq. 4.5 and eq. 4.20 and in caption to fig.

Helicity skewed quark distributions of the nucleon and chiral symmetry

We compute the helicity skewed quark distributions $\widetilde{H}$ and $\widetilde{E}$ in the chiral quark-soliton model of the nucleon. This model emphasizes correctly the role of spontaneously broken chiral symmetry in structure of nucleon. It is based on the large-N_c picture of the nucleon as a soliton of the effective chiral lagrangian and allows to calculate the leading twist quark- and antiquark distributions at a low normalization point. We discuss the role of chiral symmetry in the helicity skewed quark distributions $\widetilde{H}$ and $\widetilde{E}$. We show that generalization of soft pion theorems, based on chiral Ward identities, leads in the region of -\xi < x < \xi to the pion pole contribution to $\widetilde{E}$ which dominates at small momentum transfer.Comment: 22 pages, 5 figure