The Intrinsic Gluon Component of the Nucleon

Using an intrinsic parton model we estimate the rough shape and size of the intrinsic gluon component of the nucleon, corresponding to an energy scale $Q$ of the order $\lqcd$. It is nearly as hard in shape as the valence quark, while its size accounts for a quarter of the nucleon momentum. Both are in qualitative agreement with the input leading twist gluon distribution assumed by Gl\"uck, Reya and Vogt at this scale in order to reproduce the observed distributions at $Q^2 \gsim 1$ GeV$^2$ via perturbative QCD evolution.