Extraction of Pion Transverse Momentum Distributions from Drell-Yan data

TL;DR

This paper extracts the unpolarized pion transverse momentum distributions from Drell-Yan process data, providing insights into quark transverse momentum inside pions and making predictions for ongoing experiments.

Contribution

It introduces a method to extract pion TMDs from Drell-Yan data using convolution with nucleon TMDs, advancing understanding of pion structure.

Findings

Good agreement with existing Drell-Yan data

Predictions for pion-nucleus scattering by COMPASS

Provides detailed pion TMDs as a function of transverse momentum

Abstract

We map the distribution of unpolarized quarks inside a unpolarized pion as a function of the quark's transverse momentum, encoded in unpolarized Transverse Momentum Distributions (TMDs). We extract the pion TMDs from available data of unpolarized pion-nucleus Drell-Yan processes, where the cross section is differential in the lepton-pair transverse momentum. In the cross section, pion TMDs are convoluted with nucleon TMDs that we consistently take from our previous studies. We obtain a fairly good agreement with data. We present also predictions for pion-nucleus scattering that is being measured by the COMPASS Collaboration.