Pion parton distribution functions and pion-nucleus induced $J/\psi$ production in extended light-front holographic QCD

TL;DR

This paper derives pion parton distribution functions using light-front holographic QCD and applies them to predict $J/$ production in pion-nucleus collisions, achieving good experimental agreement.

Contribution

It introduces a method to compute pion PDFs from holographic light-front wave functions and uses them to accurately predict $J/$ production cross sections.

Findings

Pion PDFs show consistency with global analyses at large $x$.

Predicted $J/$ production cross sections agree with experimental data.

The approach bridges holographic QCD with phenomenological predictions.

Abstract

We determine the pion parton distribution functions (PDFs) from its light-front wave functions, obtained using the holographic Schr\"odinger equation of light-front chiral QCD combined with the 't Hooft equation in (1+1)-dimensional QCD at large $N_c$. We analyze the large-$x$ behavior of the valence PDF, $\sim (1-x)^{\beta^{\rm eff}_v}$, finding overall consistency with global analyses. These pion PDFs, together with nuclear PDFs, are then used to compute the differential cross sections up to next-to-leading order for inclusive $J/\psi$ production in pion--nucleus collisions, which show good agreement with experimental data across different energies and nuclear targets.