A1 Journal article (refereed)
Intrinsic charm quark valence distribution of the proton (2024)

Ball, R. D., Candido, A., Cruz-Martinez, J., Forte, S., Giani, T., Hekhorn, F., Magni, G., Nocera, E. R., Rojo, J., & Stegeman, R. (2024). Intrinsic charm quark valence distribution of the proton. Physical Review D, 109(9), Article L091501. https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.109.L091501

JYU authors or editors

Publication details

All authors or editors: Ball, Richard D.; Candido, Alessandro; Cruz-Martinez, Juan; Forte, Stefano; Giani, Tommaso; Hekhorn, Felix; Magni, Giacomo; Nocera, Emanuele R.; Rojo, Juan; Stegeman, Roy

Journal or series: Physical Review D

ISSN: 2470-0010

eISSN: 2470-0029

Publication year: 2024

Publication date: 01/05/2024

Volume: 109

Issue number: 9

Article number: L091501

Publisher: American Physical Society (APS)

Publication country: United States

Publication language: English

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.109.L091501

Publication open access: Openly available

Publication channel open access: Partially open access channel

Publication is parallel published (JYX): https://jyx.jyu.fi/handle/123456789/95619

Web address of parallel published publication (pre-print):  https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2311.00743

Additional information: NNPDF Collaboration

Abstract

We provide a first quantitative indication that the wave function of the proton contains unequal distributions of charm quarks and antiquarks, i.e. a nonvanishing intrinsic valence charm distribution. A significant nonvanishing valence component cannot be perturbatively generated, hence our results reinforce previous evidence that the proton contains an intrinsic (i.e., not radiatively generated) charm quark component. We establish our result through a determination of the parton distribution functions (PDFs) of charm quarks and antiquarks in the proton. We propose two novel experimental probes of this intrinsic charm valence component: D-meson asymmetries in Z+c-jet production at the LHCb experiment, and flavor-tagged structure functions at the Electron-Ion Collider.

Keywords: protons; quarks; particle physics

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Related projects

Ministry reporting: Yes

VIRTA submission year: 2024

Preliminary JUFO rating: 2