Hadronic form factors and the J/ψJ/\psi secondary production cross section: an update

Improving previous calculations, we compute the $D + \bar{D} \to J/\psi + \pi$ cross section using the most complete effective lagrangians available. The new crucial ingredients are the form factors on the charm meson vertices, which are determined from QCD sum rules calculations. Some of them became available only very recently and the last one, needed for our present purpose, is calculated in this work.Comment: 12 pages, 9 eps figure

Does the D−/D+D^-/D^+ production asymmetry decrease at large xFx_F?

We have applied the meson cloud model (MCM) to calculate the asymmetries in $D$ and $D_s$ meson production in high energy $\Sigma^-$-nucleus and $\pi^-$-nucleus collisions. We find a good agreement with recent data. Our results suggest that the asymmetries may decrease at large $x_F$.Comment: revised version with new figures and added references to appear in Phys. Rev. Let

Charm and longitudinal structure functions with the Kharzeev-Levin-Nardi model

We use the Kharzeev-Levin-Nardi model of the low $x$ gluon distributions to fit recent HERA data on charm and longitudinal structure functions. Having checked that this model gives a good description of the data, we use it to predict $F^c_2$ and $F_L$ to be measured in a future electron-ion collider. The results interpolate between those obtained with the de Florian-Sassot and Eskola-Paukkunen-Salgado nuclear gluon distributions. The conclusion of this exercise is that the KLN model, simple as it is, may still be used as an auxiliary tool to make estimates both for heavy ion and electron-ion collisions.Comment: 6 pages, 7 figure

Gluon saturation and Feynman scaling in leading neutron production

In this paper we extend the color dipole formalism to the study of leading neutron production in $e + p \rightarrow e + n + X$ collisions at high energies and estimate the related observables, which were measured at HERA and may be analysed in future electron-proton ($ep$) colliders. In particular, we calculate the Feynman $x_F$ distribution of leading neutrons, which is expressed in terms of the pion flux and the photon-pion total cross section. In the color dipole formalism, the photon-pion cross section is described in terms of the dipole-pion scattering amplitude, which contains information about the QCD dynamics at high energies and gluon saturation effects. We consider different models for the scattering amplitude, which have been used to describe the inclusive and diffractive $ep$ HERA data. Moreover, the model dependence of our predictions with the description of the pion flux is analysed in detail. We show that the recently released H1 leading neutron spectra can be reproduced using the color dipole formalism and that these spectra could help us to observe more clearly gluon saturation effects in future $ep$ colliders.Comment: 10 pages, 5 figure

Meson Cloud and SU(3) Symmetry Breaking in Parton Distributions

We apply the Meson Cloud Model to the calculation of nonsinglet parton distributions in the nucleon sea, including the octet and the decuplet cloud baryon contributions. We give special attention to the differences between nonstrange and strange sea quarks, trying to identify possible sources of SU(3) flavor breaking. A analysis in terms of the $\kappa$ parameter is presented, and we find that the existing SU(3) flavor asymmetry in the nucleon sea can be quantitatively explained by the meson cloud. We also consider the $\Sigma^+$ baryon, finding similar conclusions.Comment: 17 pages, LaTeX, 8 figures in .ps file

Tetraquark Production in Double Parton Scattering

We develop a model to study tetraquark production in hadronic collisions. We focus on double parton scattering and formulate a version of the color evaporation model for the production of the $X(3872)$ and of the $T_{4c}$ tetraquark, a state composed by the $c \bar{c} c \bar{c}$ quarks. We find that the production cross section grows rapidly with the collision energy $\sqrt{s}$ and make predictions for the forthcoming higher energy data of the LHC.Comment: 13 pages, 3 figures. Corrections in the text and reference

Double vector meson production in the International Linear Collider

In this paper we study double vector meson production in $\gamma \gamma$ interactions at high energies and, using the color dipole picture, estimate the main observables which can be probed at the International Linear Collider (ILC). The total $\gamma (Q_1^2) + \gamma (Q_2^2) \rightarrow V_1 + V_2$ cross-sections for $V_i = \rho$, $\phi$, $J/\psi$ and $\Upsilon$ are computed and the energy and virtuality dependencies are studied in detail. Our results demonstrate that the experimental analysis of this process is feasible at the ILC and it can be useful to constrain the QCD dynamics at high energies.Comment: 11 pages, 8 figure

Nuclear shadowing in deep inelastic scattering on nuclei: a closer look

The measurement of the nuclear structure function $F_2^A (x,Q^2)$ at the future electron-ion collider (EIC) will be of great relevance to understand the origin of the nuclear shadowing and to probe gluon saturation effects. Currently there are several phenomenological models, based on very distinct approaches, which describe the scarce experimental data quite successfully. One of main uncertainties comes from the schemes used to include the effects associated to the multiple scatterings and to unitarize the cross section. In this paper we compare the predictions of three different unitarization schemes of the nuclear structure function which use the same theoretical input to describe the projectile-nucleon interaction. In particular, we consider as input the predictions of the Color Glass Condensate formalism, which reproduce the inclusive and diffractive $ep$ HERA data. Our results suggest that the experimental analysis of $F_2^A$ will be able to discriminate between the unitarization schemes.Comment: 16 pages, 4 figure