Suppression of contributions from large-parton-number Fok states to T-odd distribution functions in Drell-Yan scattering involving small-x annihilating quark and antiquark

TL;DR

This paper investigates how high-parton-number Fok states in protons suppress the generation of T-odd distribution functions like Sivers and Boer-Mulders in small-x Drell-Yan processes, challenging traditional few-body models.

Contribution

It introduces a novel perspective by analyzing the impact of high-order Fok states on T-odd distributions, showing suppression effects in high-energy proton-proton collisions.

Findings

Rescattering terms for T-odd distributions are suppressed in high-parton-number Fok states.

The traditional modeling of T-odd functions using few-body models may overestimate their contributions.

High-energy small-x Drell-Yan processes are affected by the suppression of T-odd distributions due to large-parton-number states.

Abstract

T-odd distributions like Sivers and Boer-Mulders functions are normally modeled using few-body models. In the present work I want to follow the completely opposite point of view, and study a high-energy proton-proton Drell-Yan where both the annihilating partons are wee, and one (at least) comes from a high-order Fok state of the parent proton, i.e. a state where a large number N of partons is present. I show that rescattering between active and spectator partons is modified, with suppression of those terms that are needed to build T-odd parton distributions.