Valence quark properties of charged kaons in symmetric nuclear matter

TL;DR

This paper investigates how the internal structure of charged kaons, including quark distributions and form factors, is affected by symmetric nuclear matter using a light-cone quark model and chiral SU(3) inputs, aligning well with experimental data.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive calculation of kaon valence quark distributions, GPDs, and electromagnetic form factors in nuclear matter, incorporating medium modifications from a chiral SU(3) quark mean field model.

Findings

Medium modifications significantly affect kaon GPDs and TMDs.

Calculated form factors and charge radii agree with experimental data.

Average quark momenta vary notably at high baryonic density.

Abstract

We calculate the leading twist valence quark transverse momentum parton distribution functions (TMDs) and generalized parton distributions (GPDs) of the charged kaons in an isospin symmetric nuclear matter at zero temperature by employing the light-cone quark model. The medium modifications of the unpolarized TMDs and GPDs have been carried out by taking inputs from the chiral SU($3$) quark mean field model. The electromagnetic form factors (EMFFs) and charge radii have been calculated from the unpolarized GPDs for both the vacuum and in-medium cases. We have also calculated the variation of average transverse and longitudinal momenta for the active quark at high baryonic density. These results are found to be in good agreement with the available experimental data as well as with other model predictions.