Nuclear parton distribution functions and their uncertainties

We analyze experimental data of nuclear structure-function ratios F_2^A/F_2^{A'} and Drell-Yan cross section ratios for obtaining optimum parton distribution functions (PDFs) in nuclei. Then, uncertainties of the nuclear PDFs are estimated by the Hessian method. Valence-quark distributions are determined by the F_2 data at large x; however, the small-x part is not obvious from the data. On the other hand, the antiquark distributions are determined well at x~0.01 from the F_2 data and at x~0.1 by the Drell-Yan data; however, the large-x behavior is not clear. Gluon distributions cannot be fixed by the present data and they have large uncertainties in the whole x region. Parametrization results are shown in comparison with the data. We provide a useful code for calculating nuclear PDFs at given x and Q^2.Comment: 9 pages, REVTeX, 23 eps files, Phys. Rev. C in press. Nuclear PDF library is available at http://hs.phys.saga-u.ac.jp/nuclp.htm

Production of J/ψJ/\psi-pairs at HERA-N⃗\vec{{\rm N}}

The production of $J/\psi$-pairs as a possible measure of the polarized gluon distribution $\Delta G(x)$ is studied for proton--nucleon collisions at \sqrt{s} =40\;\mbox{GeV}^2 (HERA-$\vec{{\rm N}}$). Possibilities of reconstructing the helicity state of at least one of the $J/\psi$'s are critically reviewed. The observation of production asymmetries in the single polarized mode of HERA-$\vec{{\rm N}}$ is found to be not feasible.Comment: 8 pages, LATeX, 3 figures availabe as .uu-fil

Extracting the Proton ubar content from pp->Direct Photon plus Jet Cross Sections

An analysis procedure is proposed to measure the antiquark distributions in the proton over the region 0.01 < x < 0.1. The procedure involves the measurement of high p_t asymmetric direct photon and jet final states in pp interactions. This measurement can be made at the RHIC collider running in pp mode at an energy of sqrt(s)=500 GeV/c. This analysis identifies a region of phase space where the contribution from quark-antiquark annihilation uncharacteristically approaches the magnitude of the contribution from the leading process, quark-gluon Compton scattering. The forward-backward angular asymmetry in the parton center of mass is sensitive to the antiquark content of the proton and the ubar parton density function can be extracted.Comment: 21 pages, 7 figure

Experimental Evidence for Simple Relations between Unpolarized and Polarized Parton Distributions

The Pauli exclusion principle is advocated for constructing the proton and neutron deep inelastic structure functions in terms of Fermi-Dirac distributions that we parametrize with very few parameters. It allows a fair description of the recent NMC data on $F^p_2(x,Q^2)$ and $F^n_2(x,Q^2)$ at $Q^2=4 GeV^2$, as well as the CCFR neutrino data at $Q^2=3$ and $5 GeV^2$. We also make some reasonable and simple assumptions to relate unpolarized and polarized quark parton distributions and we obtain, with no additional free parameters, the spin dependent structure functions $xg^p_1(x,Q^2)$ and $xg^n_1(x,Q^2)$. Using the correct $Q^2$ evolution, we have checked that they are in excellent agreement with the very recent SMC proton data at $Q^2=10 GeV^2$ and the SLAC neutron data at $Q^2=2 GeV^2$.Comment: 17 pages,CPT-94/P.3032,latex,6 fig available on cpt.univ-mrs.fr directory pub/preprints/94/fundamental-interactions /94-P.303

Scheme Independence of g1p(x,Q2)g_1^p (x, Q^2)

We work with two general factorization schemes in order to explore the consequences of imposing scheme independence on $g_1^p (x, Q^2)$. We see that although the light quark sector is indifferent to the choice of a particular scheme, the extension of the calculations to the heavy quark sector indicates that a scheme like the $\bar{MS}$ is preferable.Comment: 11 pages, 2 figures. To appear in the Brief Reports of Phys. Rev.

Small Momentum Evolution of the Extended Drell--Hearn--Gerasimov Sum Rule

We investigate the momentum dependence of the extended Drell-Hearn-Gerasimov sum rule. An economical formalism is developed which allows to express the extended DHG sum rule in terms of a single virtual Compton amplitude in forward direction. Rigorous results for the small momentum evolution are derived from chiral perturbation theory within the one-loop approximation. Furthermore, we evaluate some higher order contributions arising from $\Delta(1232)$ intermediate states and relativistic corrections. (2 figures available upon request).Comment: 12 pages, TeX, BUTP-92/51 and CRN-92-5

Gamma ray astronomy and baryonic dark matter

Recently, Dixon et al. have re-analyzed the EGRET data, finding a statistically significant diffuse $\gamma$-ray emission from the galactic halo. We show that this emission can naturally be explained within a previously-proposed model for baryonic dark matter, in which $\gamma$-rays are produced through the interaction of high-energy cosmic-ray protons with cold $H_2$ clouds clumped into dark clusters - these dark clusters supposedly populate the outer galactic halo and can show up in microlensing observations. Our estimate for the halo $\gamma$-ray flux turns out to be in remarkably good agreement with the discovery by Dixon et al. We also address future prospects to test our predictions.Comment: 9 pages, 1 figure included, to appear in ApJ 510, L103 (1999

Polarized and Unpolarized Nucleon Structure Functions from Lattice QCD

We report on a high statistics quenched lattice QCD calculation of the deep-inelastic structure functions $F_1$, $F_2$, $g_1$ and $g_2$ of the proton and neutron. The theoretical basis for the calculation is the operator product expansion. We consider the moments of the leading twist operators up to spin four. Using Wilson fermions the calculation is done for three values of $\kappa$, and we perform the extrapolation to the chiral limit. The renormalization constants, which lead us from lattice to continuum operators, are calculated in perturbation theory to one loop order.Comment: 17 pages, uuencoded postscript file. Renormalization constant of now include

The Nucleon ``Tensor Charges'' and the Skyrme Model

The lowest moment of the twist-two, chiral-odd parton distribution $h_1(x)$ of the nucleon can be related to the so-called ``tensor charges'' of the nucleon. We consider the tensor charges in the Skyrme model, and find that in the large-$N_c$, SU(3)-symmetric limit, the model predicts that the octet isosinglet tensor charge, $g^8_T$, is of order $1/N_c$ with respect to the octet isovector tensor charge, $g^3_T$. The predicted $F/D$ ratio is then 1/3, in the large-$N_c$ limit. These predictions coincide with the Skyrme model predictions for the octet ${\it axial}$ charges, $g^8_A$ and $g^3_A$. (The prediction $F/D=1/3$ for the axial charges differs from the commonly quoted prediction of 5/9, which is based on an inconsistent treatment of the large-$N_c$ limit.) The model also predicts that the singlet tensor charge, $g^0_T$, is of order $1/N_c$ with respect to $g^3_T$.Comment: 9 single-spaced pages, no figures, MIT-CTP-212

A Self-Consistent Approach to Neutral-Current Processes in Supernova Cores

The problem of neutral-current processes (neutrino scattering, pair emission, pair absorption, axion emission, \etc) in a nuclear medium can be separated into an expression representing the phase space of the weakly interacting probe, and a set of dynamic structure functions of the medium. For a non-relativistic medium we reduce the description to two structure functions S_A(\o) and S_V(\o) of the energy transfer, representing the axial-vector and vector interactions. $S_V$ is well determined by the single-nucleon approximation while $S_A$ may be dominated by multiply interacting nucleons. Unless the shape of S_A(\o) changes dramatically at high densities, scattering processes always dominate over pair processes for neutrino transport or the emission of right-handed states. Because the emission of right-handed neutrinos and axions is controlled by the same medium response functions, a consistent constraint on their properties from consideration of supernova cooling should use the same structure functions for both neutrino transport and exotic cooling mechanisms.Comment: 33 pages, Te