Strange sea distributions of the nucleon

TL;DR

This paper uses a non-perturbative meson cloud model to estimate the strange quark distributions in the nucleon, which are less constrained by experimental data, providing new insights into the nucleon's strange sea content.

Contribution

It introduces a novel application of the meson cloud model to calculate the strange quark distributions, improving understanding of the nucleon's strange sea.

Findings

Estimated total strange sea distributions of the nucleon.

Provided new estimates of the strange sea suppression factor.

Enhanced understanding of non-perturbative contributions to nucleon structure.

Abstract

The strange and antistrange quark distributions of the nucleon are less constrained by experimental data than the non-strange quark sea. The combination of light quark sea distributions, $\Delta(x)=\dbar(x)+\ubar(x)-s(x)-\sbar(x)$, originates mainly from non-perturbative processes and can be calculated using non-perturbative models of the nucleon. We have calculated $\Delta(x)$ using the meson cloud model, which, when combined with the relatively well known non-strange light antiquark distributions obtained from global analysis of available experimental data, enables us to make new estimates of the total strange sea distributions of the nucleon and the strange sea suppression factor.