We present the first rainbow-ladder Dyson-Schwinger equations study of the pion's chiral-odd, twist-3 parton distribution e_ q(x). By deriving a novel Dyson-Schwinger equation for the pion's quark-quark correlation matrix, we simultaneously extract from it both the unpolarized twist-2 parton distribution function f_ q(x) and the twist-3 distribution e_ q(x). Our results show that chiral symmetry strongly suppresses the twist-2 component of e_ q(x), leaving the genuine twist-3 quark-gluon component dominant and featuring a node. We therefore argue that the genuine twist-3 term can make a substantial contribution to hadronic e(x), producing a nonmonotonic structure that is a clear imprint of intrinsic quark-gluon correlations. We point out that the existence of a hump-like feature is compatible with, although not uniquely indicated by, recent proton extractions and awaits more precise determination.

The parton structure of the nucleon and pion is investigated in an exploratory model that allows one to assess whether the dressing of quarks can, by itself, produce realistic gluon contributions to light-cone momentum fractions, gravitational form factors, mass/energy distributions and their radii. The model is the Dyson-Schwinger Equations in Rainbow-Ladder truncation. For the parton mass/energy distributions as a function of momentum transfer, we directly calculate matrix elements of the Energy-Momentum Tensor by utilizing its similarity to the momentum fraction moment of GPDs associated with deep inelastic scattering. A variety of gravitational form factors are obtained including the D-term.

The lowest two Mellin moments of hadronic Generalized Parton Distributions are explored within a model that allows investigation of the inter-related quark and gluon contributions. For light quarks their dynamical connection is strong due to quark dressing. Our principal focus is the angular momentum J of the nucleon. This work employs and extends dynamical insights obtained from our recent model results for quark and gluon momentum fractions 〈x〉q/g in both pion and nucleon. The employed model is based on the Rainbow-Ladder truncation of the Dyson-Schwinger equations of QCD. The special case of a 1-loop treatment of a single hadronic quark is used to motivate several insights and obtain initial estimates such as the Wilson line correction to the established Landau gauge model (−7% for both Jq and 〈x〉q), and the "binding gluon" contribution to 〈x〉g (≤10%). We obtain the proton J within 1% after inclusion of the pion cloud mechanism to produce the sea. The gluon second Mellin moments of the proton reflect similar dynamics; (〈x〉g, Jg) are (26%, 24%) at model scale, and (40%, 38%) at 2 GeV. We also find that Jtot is shared almost equally between the total orbital and total intrinsic spin contributions.

We construct a quark target model (QTM) to incorporate intrinsic glue into effective low-energy models of QCD, which often contain only quark degrees of freedom. This method guarantees the gauge invariance of observables order-by-order in the strong coupling. The quark and gluon PDFs for the dressed quarks are obtained in the QTM at leading order. We demonstrate gauge invariance of the results by comparing both covariant and light cone gauges, with the former including an explicit Wilson line contribution. A key finding is that in covariant gauges the Wilson line can carry a significant amount of the light cone momentum. With coupling strength $\alpha_s = 0.5$ and dressed quark mass $M_q = 0.4\,$GeV, we find quark and gluon momentum fractions of $\left _q = 0.81$ and $\left _g = 0.19$, where the Wilson line contribution to the quark momentum fraction is $-0.18$. We use the on-shell renormalization scheme and find that at one-loop this Wilson line contribution does not depend on the covariant gauge but does vanish in light cone gauge as expected. This result demonstrates that it is crucial to account for Wilson line contributions when calculating quantum correlation functions in covariant gauges. We also consider the impact of a gluon mass using the gauge invariant formalism proposed by Cornwall, and combine these QTM results with two quark-level models to obtain quark and gluon PDFs for the pion.

Gluon dressing of the light quarks within hadrons is very strong and extremely important in that it dynamically generates most of the observable mass through the breaking of chiral symmetry. The quark and gluon parton densities, q(x) and g(x), are necessarily interrelated since any gluon emission and absorption process, especially dressing of a quark, contributes to g(x) and modifies q(x). Guided by long-established results for the parton-in-parton distributions from a strict 1-loop perturbative analysis of a quark target, we extend the non-perturbative QCD approach based on the Rainbow-Ladder truncation of the Dyson-Schwinger equations to describe the interrelated valence qv(x) and the dressing-gluon g(x) for a hadron at its intrinsic model scale. We employ the pion description from previous DSE work that accounted for the gluon-in-quark effect, and introduce a simple model of the nucleon for exploratory purposes. We find typically 〈x〉g∼0.20 for both pion and nucleon at the model scale, and the valence quark helicity contributes 52% of nucleon spin. We deduce both qv(x) and g(x) from 30 calculated Mellin moments, and after adopting existing data analysis results for qsea(x), we find that NLO scale evolution produces g(x) in good agreement with existing data analysis results for the pion at 1.3 GeV and the nucleon at 5 GeV2. At the scale 2 GeV typical of lattice-QCD calculations, we obtain 〈x〉gN=0.42 in good agreement with 0.38 from the average of recent lattice-QCD calculations.

The leading-twist parton distribution functions of the pion and kaon are calculated for the first time using a rainbow-ladder truncation of QCD's Dyson-Schwinger equations (DSEs) that self-consistently sums all planar diagrams. The non-perturbative gluon dressing of the quarks is thereby correctly accounted for, which in practice means solving the inhomogeneous Bethe-Salpeter equation (BSE) for the quark operator that defines the spin-independent quark distribution functions. An immediate consequence of using this dressed vertex is that gluons carry 35 kaon's light-cone momentum, with the remaining momentum carried by the quarks. The scale associated with these DSE results is μ_0 = 0.78GeV. The gluon effects generated by the inhomogeneous BSE are inherently non-perturbative and cannot be mimicked by the perturbative QCD evolution equations. A key consequence of this gluon dressing is that the valence quarks have reduced support at low-to-intermediate x, where the gluons dominate, and increased support at large x. As a result, our DSE calculation of the pion's valence quark distribution is in excellent agreement with the Conway et al. pion-induced Drell-Yan data, but nevertheless exhibits the q_π(x) ≃ (1-x)^2 behavior as x→ 1 predicted by perturbative QCD.

The leading-twist parton distribution functions of the pion and kaon are calculated for the first time using a rainbow-ladder truncation of QCD's Dyson-Schwinger equations (DSEs) that self-consistently sums all planar diagrams. The nonperturbative gluon dressing of the quarks is thereby correctly accounted for, which in practice means solving the inhomogeneous Bethe-Salpeter equation (BSE) for the quark operator that defines the spin-independent quark distribution functions. An immediate consequence of using this dressed vertex is that gluons carry 35% of the pion's and 30% of the kaon's light-cone momentum, with the remaining momentum carried by the quarks. The scale associated with these DSE results is μ_{0}=0.78  GeV. The gluon effects generated by the inhomogeneous BSE are inherently nonperturbative and cannot be mimicked by the perturbative QCD evolution equations. A key consequence of this gluon dressing is that the valence quarks have reduced support at low-to-intermediate x, where the gluons dominate, and increased support at large x. As a result, our DSE calculation of the pion's valence quark distribution is in excellent agreement with the Conway et al. pion-induced Drell-Yan data, but nevertheless exhibits the q_{π}(x)≃(1-x)^{2} behavior as x→1 predicted by perturbative QCD.

The leading-twist parton distribution functions of the pion and kaon are calculated for the first time using a rainbow-ladder truncation of QCD's Dyson-Schwinger equations (DSEs) that self-consistently sums all planar diagrams. The non-perturbative gluon dressing of the quarks is thereby correctly accounted for, which in practice means solving the inhomogeneous Bethe-Salpeter equation (BSE) for the quark operator that defines the spin-independent quark distribution functions. An immediate consequence of using this dressed vertex is that gluons carry 35% of the pion's and 30% of the kaon's light-cone momentum, with the remaining momentum carried by the quarks. The scale associated with these DSE results is $\mu_0 = 0.78\,$GeV. The gluon effects generated by the inhomogeneous BSE are inherently non-perturbative and cannot be mimicked by the perturbative QCD evolution equations. A key consequence of this gluon dressing is that the valence quarks have reduced support at low-to-intermediate $x$, where the gluons dominate, and increased support at large $x$. As a result, our DSE calculation of the pion's valence quark distribution is in excellent agreement with the Conway et al. pion-induced Drell-Yan data, but nevertheless exhibits the $q_\pi(x) \simeq (1-x)^2$ behavior as $x\to 1$ predicted by perturbative QCD.

We present results for the nucleon's leading-twist spin-independent valence parton distribution functions obtained from a theoretical framework based on the Dyson–Schwinger equations (DSEs) of QCD that previously gave an excellent description of nucleon electromagnetic form factors. Key dynamical elements selected by experience with the rainbow-ladder truncation of the DSEs are implemented. We utilize nucleon bound state amplitudes from the Poincaré-covariant Faddeev equation that implements the dominant scalar and axial-vector quark–quark correlations. This framework is used to numerically evaluate the first 20 moments of the valence u and d quark distribution functions, from which the x-dependence of the distributions is found to be well constrained. We find good agreement with empirical parameterizations of experimental data and make the prediction that the d/u ratio in the x→1 limit, invariant under scale evolution, takes the value d/u→0.087±0.010. We find that this ratio is rather sensitive to the strength of axial-vector diquark correlations. However, contrary to a naive expectation, our result for the d/u ratio in the x→1 limit does not vanish when only scalar diquark correlations are present, although it is an order-of-magnitude smaller than our d/u result that also includes axial-vector diquarks. The valence quark distribution results are set in a broader context via a simple pion cloud model estimate of sea-quark light-cone momenta and gluon light-cone momentum.

A continuum approach to the kaon and pion bound-state problems is used to reveal their electromagnetic structure. For both systems, when used with parton distribution amplitudes appropriate to the scale of the experiment, Standard Model hard-scattering formulas are accurate to within 25% at momentum transfers Q(2) approximate to 8 GeV2. There are measurable differences between the distribution of strange and normal matter within the kaons, e.g. the ratio of their separate contributions reaches a peak value of 1.5 at Q(2) approximate to 6 GeV2. Its subsequent Q(2) evolution is accurately described by the hard scattering formulas. Projections for the ratio of kaon and pion form factors at timelike momenta beyond the resonance region are also presented. These results and projections should prove useful in planning next-generation experiments.

The $\gamma^\ast \gamma \to \pi^0$ transition form factor, $G(Q^2)$, is computed on the entire domain of spacelike momenta using a continuum approach to the two valence-body bound-state problem in relativistic quantum field theory: the result agrees with data obtained by the CELLO, CLEO and Belle Collaborations. The analysis unifies this prediction with that of the pion's valence-quark parton distribution amplitude (PDA) and elastic electromagnetic form factor, and demonstrates, too, that a fully self-consistent treatment can readily connect a pion PDA that is a broad, concave function at the hadronic scale with the perturbative QCD prediction for the transition form factor in the hard photon limit. The normalisation of that limit is set by the scale of dynamical chiral symmetry breaking, which is a crucial feature of the Standard Model. Understanding of the latter will thus remain incomplete until definitive transition form factor data is available on $Q^2>10\,$GeV$^2$.

We compute the kaon's valence-quark (twist-two parton) distribution amplitude (PDA) by projecting its Poincaré-covariant Bethe–Salpeter wave-function onto the light-front. At a scale ζ=2GeV, the PDA is a broad, concave and asymmetric function, whose peak is shifted 12–16% away from its position in QCD's conformal limit. These features are a clear expression of SU(3)-flavour-symmetry breaking. They show that the heavier quark in the kaon carries more of the bound-state's momentum than the lighter quark and also that emergent phenomena in QCD modulate the magnitude of flavour-symmetry breaking: it is markedly smaller than one might expect based on the difference between light-quark current masses. Our results add to a body of evidence which indicates that at any energy scale accessible with existing or foreseeable facilities, a reliable guide to the interpretation of experiment requires the use of such nonperturbatively broadened PDAs in leading-order, leading-twist formulae for hard exclusive processes instead of the asymptotic PDA associated with QCD's conformal limit. We illustrate this via the ratio of kaon and pion electromagnetic form factors: using our nonperturbative PDAs in the appropriate formulae, FK/Fπ=1.23 at spacelike-Q2=17GeV2, which compares satisfactorily with the value of 0.92(5) inferred in e+e− annihilation at s=17GeV2.

The impulse-approximation expression used hitherto to define the pion's valence-quark distribution function is flawed because it omits contributions from the gluons which bind quarks into the pion. A corrected leading-order expression produces the model-independent result that quarks dressed via the rainbow–ladder truncation, or any practical analogue, carry all the pion's light-front momentum at a characteristic hadronic scale. Corrections to the leading contribution may be divided into two classes, responsible for shifting dressed-quark momentum into glue and sea-quarks. Working with available empirical information, we use an algebraic model to express the principal impact of both classes of corrections. This enables a realistic comparison with experiment that allows us to highlight the basic features of the pion's measurable valence-quark distribution, qπ(x); namely, at a characteristic hadronic scale, qπ(x)∼(1−x)2 for x≳0.85; and the valence-quarks carry approximately two-thirds of the pion's light-front momentum.

We describe results for the pion distribution amplitude (PDA) at the non-perturbative scale μ = 2 GeV by projecting the Poincaré-covariant Bethe–Salpeter wave-function onto the light-front and use it to investigate the ultraviolet behavior of the electromagnetic form factor, F π (Q 2), on the entire domain of spacelike Q 2. The significant dilation of this PDA compared to the known asymptotic PDA is a signature of dynamical chiral symmetry breaking on the light front. We investigate the transition region of Q 2 where non-perturbative behavior of constituent-like quarks gives way to the partonic-like behavior of quantum chromodynamics (QCD). The non-perturbative approach is based on the Dyson–Schwinger equation (DSE) framework for continuum investigations in QCD. The leading-order, leading-twist perturbative QCD result for Q 2 F π (Q 2) underestimates the new DSE computation by just 15 % on \({Q^2\gtrsim 8\,}\) GeV2, in stark contrast with the result obtained using the asymptotic PDA.

We project onto the light front the pion's Poincaré-covariant Bethe-Salpeter wave function obtained using two different approximations to the kernels of quantum chromodynamics' Dyson-Schwinger equations. At an hadronic scale, both computed results are concave and significantly broader than the asymptotic distribution amplitude, φ(π)(asy)(x)=6x(1-x); e.g., the integral of φ(π)(x)/φ(π)(asy)(x) is 1.8 using the simplest kernel and 1.5 with the more sophisticated kernel. Independent of the kernels, the emergent phenomenon of dynamical chiral-symmetry breaking is responsible for hardening the amplitude.

A method is explained through which a pointwise accurate approximation to the pion's valence-quark distribution amplitude (PDA) may be obtained from a limited number of moments. In connection with the single nontrivial moment accessible in contemporary simulations of lattice-regularized QCD, the method yields a PDA that is a broad concave function whose pointwise form agrees with that predicted by Dyson-Schwinger equation analyses of the pion. Under leading-order evolution, the PDA remains broad to energy scales in excess of 100 GeV, a feature which signals persistence of the influence of dynamical chiral symmetry breaking. Consequently, the asymptotic distribution φπ(asy)(x) is a poor approximation to the pion's PDA at all such scales that are either currently accessible or foreseeable in experiments on pion elastic and transition form factors. Thus, related expectations based on φ φπ(asy)(x) should be revised.

A novel method is employed to compute the pion electromagnetic form factor, F(π)(Q²), on the entire domain of spacelike momentum transfer using the Dyson-Schwinger equation (DSE) framework in QCD. The DSE architecture unifies this prediction with that of the pion's valence-quark parton distribution amplitude (PDA). Using this PDA, the leading-order, leading-twist perturbative QCD result for Q²F(π)(Q²) underestimates the full computation by just 15% on Q²≳8 GeV², in stark contrast to the result obtained using the asymptotic PDA. The analysis shows that hard contributions to the pion form factor dominate for Q²≳8 GeV², but, even so, the magnitude of Q²F(π)(Q²) reflects the scale of dynamical chiral symmetry breaking, a pivotal emergent phenomenon in the standard model.