Unraveling Proton Strangeness: Robust Determination of the Strangeness Sigma Term with High Statistical Significance

Abstract

This study delves into the contribution of the strange quark within the proton, which influences several fundamental proton properties. By establishing a robust relationship between the proton's quantum anomalous energy and the sigma term, we successfully extract the strangeness sigma term ($\sigma_{sN}$) with a precise value of $420.1\pm59.3$ MeV. Additionally, we present novel results for the proton trace anomalous energy, observing a value of $0.12\pm0.02$. Our analysis integrates the most recent data from the Hall C and GlueX collaborations, warranting a strong endorsement for the existence of a non-zero strangeness component inside the proton, with a remarkable statistical significance of $7.1\sigma$. Furthermore, we investigate the possibility of scheme-independence in the extraction results and examine the uniformity of sigma terms obtained from the datasets provided by the two collaborations. Our analysis reveals compatibility between the extraction results of the respective experiments.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures, 2 table