Does nuclear medium affect the transverse momentum-dependent parton distributions of valence quark of pions?

Abstract

We calculate the valence quark transverse momentum-dependent parton distributions (TMDs) of the lightest pseudoscalar meson, pions, in isospin asymmetric nuclear matter at zero temperature by employing a light-cone quark model. The medium modifications in the pion unpolarized TMDs are induced through the effective quark masses computed using the chiral SU(3) quark mean field model. The spin densities at different momentum fraction (x) have also been calculated at different baryonic densities.

Keywords

• Transverse momentum parton distribution functions
• Medium modifications
• Parton distribution functions
• Spin densities