Constraining kaon PDFs from Drell-Yan and J/ψ production

Abstract

The kaon parton distribution functions (PDFs) are poorly known due to paucity of kaon-induced Drell-Yan data. Nevertheless, these Drell-Yan data suggest a softer valence u quark distribution of the kaon compared to that of the pion. We discuss the opportunity to constrain the kaon PDFs utilizing the existing kaon-induced J/ψ production data. We compare the K−/π− and K+/π+ cross-section ratio data with calculations based on two global-fit parametrizations and two recent theoretical predictions for the kaon and pion PDFs, and test the results with two quarkonium production models. The K−/π− cross-section ratio for J/ψ production provides independent evidence of different valence quark distributions in pion and kaon. The K+/π+ J/ψ data are found to be sensitive to the gluon distribution in kaon. We show that these J/ψ production data provide valuable constraints for evaluating the adequacy of currently available sets of kaon PDFs.