Energy and system size dependence of subnucleonic fluctuations

TL;DR

This paper investigates how the internal structure fluctuations of protons evolve with energy using the JIMWLK equation, fitting initial conditions to experimental data, and explores the impact of nucleon shape fluctuations in nuclear interactions.

Contribution

It introduces a method to study energy-dependent proton structure fluctuations by solving the JIMWLK equation with data-driven initial conditions.

Findings

Proton size remains consistent with diffractive vector meson data.

Nucleon shape fluctuations influence exclusive vector meson production off nuclei.

The energy evolution of subnucleonic fluctuations is characterized using the JIMWLK framework.

Abstract

The energy evolution of the fluctuating proton structure is studied by solving the JIMWLK renormalization group equation. The initial condition at moderate $x$ is obtained by fitting the charm reduced cross section data from HERA, requiring that the proton size remains compatible with the diffractive vector meson production measurements. Additionally, we show that the nucleon shape fluctuations are visible in exclusive vector meson production off nuclei.