We use the meson cloud model to calculate $bar{d}(x) - bar{u}(x)$ and $ bar{d}(x)/bar{u}(x)$ in the proton. We show that a modification of the symmetric, perturbative part of the light quark sea provides better agreement with the ratio $ bar{d}(x)/bar{u}(x).
The unpolarized, helicity and transversity parton distribution functions of the nucleon are studied within a convolution model where the bare nucleon is dressed by its virtual meson cloud. Using light-front time-ordered perturbation theory, the Fock
states of the physical nucleon are expanded in a series involving a bare nucleon and two-particle, meson-baryon, states. The bare baryons and mesons are described with light-front wave functions (LFWFs) for the corresponding valence-parton components. Using a representation in terms of overlap of LFWFs, the role of the non-perturbative antiquark degrees of freedom and the valence quark contribution at the input scale of the model is discussed for the leading-twist collinear parton distributions. After introducing perturbative QCD effects through evolution to experimental scales, the results are compared with available data and phenomenological extractions. Predictions for the nucleon tensor charge are also presented, finding a very good agreement with recent phenomenological extractions.
Although the distributions of sea quarks and antiquarks generated by leading-twist QCD evolution through gluon splitting $g rightarrow bar q q$ are necessarily CP symmetric, the distributions of nonvalence quarks and antiquarks which are intrinsic to
the nucleons bound state wavefunction need not be identical. In this paper we investigate the sea quark/antiquark asymmetries in the nucleon wavefunction which are generated by a light-cone model of energetically-favored meson-baryon fluctuations. The model predicts striking quark/antiquark asymmetries in the momentum and helicity distributions for the down and strange contributions to the proton structure function: the intrinsic $d$ and $s$ quarks in the proton sea are predicted to be negatively polarized, whereas the intrinsic $bar d$ and $bar s$ antiquarks give zero contributions to the proton spin. Such a picture is supported by experimental phenomena related to the proton spin problem and the violation of the Ellis-Jaffe sum rule. The light-cone meson-baryon fluctuation model also suggests a structured momentum distribution asymmetry for strange quarks and antiquarks which could be relevant to an outstanding conflict between two different determinations of the strange quark sea in the nucleon. The model predicts an excess of intrinsic $d bar d$ pairs over $u bar u$ pairs, as supported by the Gottfried sum rule violation. We also predict that the intrinsic charm and anticharm helicity and momentum distributions are not identical.
We study the helicity distributions of light flavor quark-antiquark ($q bar{q}$) pairs in the nucleon sea. The valence quarks are handled by adopting the light-cone SU(6) quark-spectator-diquark model and the sea $q bar{q}$ pairs are treated from sta
tistical consideration by introducing the helicity suppression factors $l_q(x)$ and $bar l_q(x)$ to parametrize the helicity distributions of q-flavor sea quark and antiquark respectively, while $Delta l_q(x)=l_q(x)-bar l_q(x)$ represents a combined effect of helicity contribution due to sea $q bar{q}$ pairs. From fitting the nucleon polarization asymmetries $A^N_1$ in inclusive deep inelastic scattering processes and the single-spin asymmetries $A^{W^{pm}}_L$ in Drell-Yan type processes, we find a significant asymmetry between the quark and antiquark helicity distributions of the nucleon sea. Therefore the quark-antiquark asymmetry of helicity distributions of nucleon sea $q bar{q}$ pairs, i.e., $Delta q_s(x) eq Delta bar q_s(x)$, plays an important role for a comprehensive understanding of the nucleon spin content.
We present a comprehensive impact study of future Electron-Ion Collider (EIC) data for parity-conserving and parity-violating polarization asymmetries on quark and gluon helicity distributions in the proton. The study, which is based on the JAM Monte
Carlo global QCD analysis framework, explores the role of the extrapolation uncertainty and SU(3) flavor symmetry constraints in the simulated double-spin asymmetry, $A_{LL}$, at small parton momentum fractions $x$ and its effect on the extracted parton polarizations. We find that different assumptions about $A_{LL}$ extrapolations and SU(3) symmetry can have significant consequences for the integrated quark and gluon polarizations, for polarized proton, deuteron and $^3$He beams. For the parity-violating asymmetry, $A_{UL}$, we study the potential impact on the polarized strange quark distribution with different extrapolations of $A_{UL}$, finding the constraining power to be ultimately limited by the EIC machine luminosity.
It is now widely recognized that a key to unravel the nonperturbative chiral-dynamics of QCD hidden in the deep-inelastic-scattering observables is the flavor structure of sea-quark distributions in the nucleon. We analyze the flavor structure of the
nucleon sea in both of the unpolarized and longitudinally polarized parton distribution functions (PDFs) within a single theoretical framework of the flavor SU(3) chiral quark soliton model (CQSM), which contains only one adjustable parameter $Delta m_s$, the effective mass difference between the strange and nonstrange quarks. A particular attention is paid to a nontrivial correlation between the flavor asymmetry of the unpolarized and longitudinally polarized sea-quark distributions and also to a possible particle-antiparticle asymmetry of the strange quark distributions in the nucleon. We also investigate the charge-symmetry-violation (CSV) effects in the parton distribution functions exactly within the same theretical framework, which is expected to provide us with valuable information on the relative importance of the asymmetry of the strange and antistrange distributions and the CSV effects in the valence-quark distributions inside the nucleon in the resolution scenario of the so-called NuTeV anomaly in the extraction of the Weinberg angle.