Reply to Comment on "Reevaluation of the parton distribution of strange quarks in the nucleon"

TL;DR

This paper reviews a comment on the reevaluation of strange quark distributions in the nucleon, confirming the validity of previous extraction methods and emphasizing the consistency of results within uncertainties.

Contribution

It provides a detailed comparison of data projections and tests the leading-order extraction method, reaffirming earlier findings on strange quark distributions.

Findings

Results are consistent with leading-order predictions.

The earlier extraction of xS(x) remains valid.

Data comparisons support previous conclusions.

Abstract

A Comment on the recently published reevaluation of the polarization-averaged parton distribution of strange quarks in the nucleon using final data on the multiplicities of charged kaons in semi-inclusive deep-inelastic scattering is reviewed. Important features of the comparison of one-dimensional projections of the multidimensional HERMES data are pointed out. A test of the leading-order extraction of xS(x) using the difference between charged-kaon multiplicities is repeated. The results are consistent with leading-order predictions within the uncertainties in the input data, and do not invalidate the earlier extraction of xS(x).