Tomography of light hadron structures: From LCDAs to iTMDs
Abstract
To account for the soft transverse dynamics overlooked by the kT factorization formalism of exclusive QCD processes, we propose introducing the intrinsic transversal momentum distribution functions (iTMDs), in conjunction with the light-cone distribution amplitudes (LCDAs), to define the probability amplitude for finding a hadron state where partons move fast along the longitudinal axis while undergoing gentle oscillations in the transverse plane. We implement this framework in the calculation of the electromagnetic form factors of the pion and the proton. Our iTMDs-improved perturbative QCD predictions show good agreement with available experimental data and lattice QCD results. More importantly, we find that higher-twist, especially subleading-twist contributions, are indispensable for explaining the scaling behavior of both pion and proton form factors at intermediate momentum transfers. Furthermore, the inclusion of iTMD effects significantly improves the perturbative QCD predictions for the pion form factor in the few GeV2.
Related
- Theoretical Review on Bulk Properties and Light/Strange Hadron Production in Heavy-Ion Collisions
- Experimental Review on Bulk Properties and Light/Strange Hadron Production in Heavy-Ion Collisions
- Neutral Pseudoscalar Mesons, Hadron Light-by-Light Scattering, and the Muon Anomalous Magnetic Moment
- Status and Progress of Hamiltonian Effective Field Theory in Light Hadron Spectroscopy
- Effect of Thermal Broadening on Light Hadron Production in Heavy-Ion Collisions
BibTeX
@misc{cheng2026tomography,
title = {{Tomography of light hadron structures: From LCDAs to iTMDs}},
author = {Shan Cheng and Jian Chai and Ji-Xin Yu},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2610.06079},
eprint = {2610.06079},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.06079},
note = {CC0},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Tomography of light hadron structures: From LCDAs to iTMDs
AU - Shan Cheng
AU - Jian Chai
AU - Ji-Xin Yu
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/05
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2610.06079
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.06079
AB - To account for the soft transverse dynamics overlooked by the k_T factorization formalism of exclusive QCD processes, we propose introducing the intrinsic transversal momentum distribution functions (iTMDs), in conjunction with the light-cone distribution amplitudes (LCDAs), to define the probability amplitude for finding a hadron state where partons move fast along the longitudinal axis while undergoing gentle oscillations in the transverse plane. We implement this framework in the calculation of the electromagnetic form factors of the pion and the proton. Our iTMDs-improved perturbative QCD predictions show good agreement with available experimental data and lattice QCD results. More importantly, we find that higher-twist, especially subleading-twist contributions, are indispensable for explaining the scaling behavior of both pion and proton form factors at intermediate momentum transfers. Furthermore, the inclusion of iTMD effects significantly improves the perturbative QCD predictions for the pion form factor in the few GeV^2.
ER -