Nuclear Shadowing and Antishadowing in a Unitarized BFKL Equation

TL;DR

This paper explains nuclear shadowing and antishadowing effects using a unitarized BFKL equation, analyzing gluon distributions and their behavior near saturation in nuclear targets, with results independent of initial distributions when parameters are data-fixed.

Contribution

It introduces a unitarized BFKL framework to describe nuclear effects on gluon distributions, emphasizing saturation behavior and parameter insensitivity.

Findings

Nuclear shadowing and antishadowing are explained by the model.

Results are insensitive to initial distributions if parameters are fixed.

Asymptotic behavior near saturation is characterized.

Abstract

The nuclear shadowing and antishadowing effects are explained by a unitarized BFKL equation. The $Q^2$- and $x$-variations of the nuclear parton distributions are detailed based on the level of the unintegrated gluon distribution. In particular, the asymptotical behavior of the unintegrated gluon distribution near the saturation limit in nuclear targets is studied. Our results in the nuclear targets are insensitive to the input distributions if the parameters are fixed by the data of a free proton.