Meson Cloud and SU(3) Symmetry Breaking in Parton Distributions

TL;DR

This paper uses the Meson Cloud Model to analyze the nucleon sea's parton distributions, focusing on SU(3) flavor symmetry breaking and explaining observed asymmetries through meson cloud effects.

Contribution

It provides a quantitative explanation of SU(3) flavor asymmetry in the nucleon sea using the Meson Cloud Model, including octet and decuplet baryon contributions.

Findings

Meson cloud accounts for SU(3) flavor asymmetry

Differences between nonstrange and strange sea quarks analyzed

Similar conclusions for the $ ext{Σ}^+$ baryon

Abstract

We apply the Meson Cloud Model to the calculation of nonsinglet parton distributions in the nucleon sea, including the octet and the decuplet cloud baryon contributions. We give special attention to the differences between nonstrange and strange sea quarks, trying to identify possible sources of SU(3) flavor breaking. A analysis in terms of the $\kappa$ parameter is presented, and we find that the existing SU(3) flavor asymmetry in the nucleon sea can be quantitatively explained by the meson cloud. We also consider the $\Sigma^+$ baryon, finding similar conclusions.