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arxiv: 1102.3479 · v2 · pith:4UL2J7RLnew · submitted 2011-02-17 · ✦ hep-ph · hep-ex· nucl-ex· nucl-th

Recent progress on nuclear parton distribution functions

classification ✦ hep-ph hep-exnucl-exnucl-th
keywords nuclearfunctionsdistributionstructureantiquarkdatadeterminedjlab
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We report current status of global analyses on nuclear parton distribution functions (NPDFs). The optimum NPDFs are determined by analyzing high-energy nuclear reaction data. Due to limited experimental measurements, antiquark modifications have large uncertainties at x>0.2 and gluon modifications cannot be determined. A nuclear modification difference between u and d quark distributions could be an origin of the long-standing NuTeV sin^2 theta_w anomaly. There is also an issue of nuclear modification differences between the structure functions of charged-lepton and neutrino reactions. Next, nuclear clustering effects are discussed in structure functions F_2^A as a possible explanation for an anomalous result in the Be-9 nucleus at the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility (JLab). Last, tensor-polarized quark and antiquark distribution functions are extracted from HERMES data on the polarized structure function b_1 of the deuteron, and they could be used for testing theoretical models and for proposing future experiments, for example, the one at JLab. Such measurements could open a new field of spin physics in spin-one hadrons.

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