{
  "abstract": "Instantons, as topologically nontrivial gauge field configurations, provide a microscopic mechanism for chiral symmetry breaking and the $U_A(1)$ anomaly in QCD. Within the instanton liquid model (ILM), instantons generate multi-fermion interactions governed by their density and size. Using this framework, we develop a microscopic description of the nucleon based on instanton-induced quark--quark correlations. We derive the diquark interaction kernels arising from single instantons and instanton--anti-instanton molecules, revealing a strong attraction in the scalar channel and weaker correlations in the spin-one channels. Embedding these interactions in a covariant, permutation-symmetric Bethe--Salpeter--Faddeev equation yields a nucleon mass $m_N=939.53~{\\rm MeV}$, with a predominantly scalar-diquark component ($98\\%$) and a small axial-vector admixture ($2\\%$) around the mass pole. Despite its small weight, the small admixture generates substantial spin--isospin interference, yielding an axial charge $g_A=1.265$, close to experiment. The resulting covariant amplitude is analytically continued to the light front to obtain the leading three-quark wave function. The corresponding unpolarized, helicity, and transversity parton distributions, along with their QCD-evolved moments, provide a direct connection to lattice QCD calculations and global-fit analyses. Our results show that the topology of the QCD vacuum organizes not only the nucleon mass and spin structure, but also its leading valence partonic content, providing a microscopic foundation for a more complete description including confinement and higher Fock components.",
  "abstract_shown": true,
  "affiliations": [],
  "article_type": null,
  "arxiv": "2610.39215",
  "author_total": 2,
  "authors": [
    {
      "name": "Wei-Yang Liu"
    },
    {
      "name": "Ismail Zahed"
    }
  ],
  "bibtex": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/1664npkjsjqma.bib",
  "cited_by": 0,
  "doi": "10.48550/arxiv.2610.39215",
  "fulltext_url": null,
  "id": "1664npkjsjqma",
  "issns": [],
  "landing_url": "https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.39215",
  "language": null,
  "licence": "LicenseRef-arXiv-nonexclusive-1.0",
  "licence_label": "arXiv licence",
  "licence_source": "article",
  "licence_url": "http://arxiv.org/licenses/nonexclusive-distrib/1.0/",
  "metadata_licence": "CC0-1.0",
  "native_subjects": [
    [
      "arxiv",
      "hep-lat"
    ],
    [
      "arxiv",
      "hep-ph"
    ],
    [
      "arxiv",
      "hep-th"
    ]
  ],
  "openalex": null,
  "pdf_url": "https://arxiv.org/pdf/2610.39215",
  "pmcid": null,
  "pmid": null,
  "published": "2026-10-29",
  "publisher": null,
  "ris": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/1664npkjsjqma.ris",
  "sources": [
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-10-30T12:36:23Z",
      "native_id": "2610.39215",
      "source": "arxiv",
      "url": "https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.39215"
    }
  ],
  "subjects": [
    {
      "field": "physics",
      "origin": "arxiv:hep-lat",
      "subfield": "high-energy"
    }
  ],
  "title": "Nucleon Wave Functions from QCD Vacuum Topology",
  "title_text": "Nucleon Wave Functions from QCD Vacuum Topology",
  "type": "preprint",
  "updated_at": "2026-11-04T15:20:51Z",
  "url": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/1664npkjsjqma",
  "venue": "arXiv",
  "versions": []
}