Neutron Transverse-Momentum Distributions and Polarized 3He within Light-Front Hamiltonian Dynamics

TL;DR

This paper explores how to extract neutron quark transverse-momentum distributions from polarized 3He scattering experiments using light-front Hamiltonian dynamics, providing a covariant framework and identifying independent distributions.

Contribution

It introduces a Poincaré covariant analysis of transverse-momentum distributions in the neutron within light-front dynamics, highlighting the independence of three key distributions.

Findings

Only three of six leading twist T-even distributions are independent.

A covariant framework for finite momentum transfers is outlined.

Implication for experimental extraction of neutron structure functions.

Abstract

The possibility to extract the quark transverse-momentum distributions in the neutron from semi-inclusive deep inelastic electron scattering off polarized 3He is illustrated through an impulse approximation analysis in the Bjorken limit. The generalization of the analysis at finite momentum transfers in a Poincare' covariant framework is outlined. The definition of the light-front spin-dependent spectral function of a J=1/2 system allows us to show that within the light-front dynamics only three of the six leading twist T-even transverse-momentum distributions are independent.