Looking for quark saturation in proton and nuclei

TL;DR

This paper numerically demonstrates quark saturation at low Q^2 in protons and nuclei using DGLAP equations with recombination corrections, suggesting a dynamical balance between parton splitting and fusion processes.

Contribution

It introduces a novel numerical approach to identify quark saturation through DGLAP equations with recombination, without additional condensation mechanisms.

Findings

Quark saturation resembles gluon saturation in JIMWLK framework.

Partonic saturation results from a balance between splitting and fusion.

Nuclear shadowing saturation at small x is explained by quark saturation.

Abstract

The quark saturation behavior at low $Q^2$ is shown in a numeric solution of the DGLAP equation with parton recombination corrections, which resembles the widely discussed JIMWLK saturation of gluons. Our calculation suggests that the partonic saturation can be interpreted as a dynamical balance between the splitting and the fusion processes of partons, without any other condensation mechanisms added. The nuclear shadowing saturation at small $x$ resulted from the proposed quark saturation is also discussed.