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Empirical determination of the kaon distribution amplitude

Lei Chang1,*, Yu-Bin Liu1, Khépani Raya2,†, and M. Atif Sultan1,3,‡

  • *Contact author: leichang@nankai.edu.cn
  • †Contact author: khepani.raya@dci.uhu.es
  • ‡Contact author: atifsultan.chep@pu.edu.pk
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Phys. Rev. D 112, 114050 – Published 31 December, 2025

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/3hd9-7wnt

Abstract

We propose a data-driven approach to extract the kaon leading-twist distribution amplitude (DA) from empirical information on the ratio of the neutral-to-charged kaon electromagnetic form factors, RK. Our study employs a two-parameter representation of the DA at ζ=2  GeV, designed to capture the expected broadening and asymmetry of the distribution, as well as the soft endpoint behavior predicted by quantum chromodynamics (QCD). Our leading-order analysis of the latest experimental measurements of RK reveals that the extracted DA exhibits a somewhat significant skewness, with the first symmetric moment being approximately ⟨1−2x⟩K=0.082(7). On the other hand, the broadness and general shape of the produced distributions show a reasonable consistency with contemporary lattice and continuum QCD analyses. These findings highlight the importance of accurately determining the profile of the DA, especially the skewness and its relation to SUF(3) flavor symmetry breaking, as well as the inclusion of higher-order effects in the hard-scattering kernels for analyzing data at experimentally accessible scales.

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Phys. Rev. D 112, 114050– Published 31 December, 2025
  • Received 10 April 2025
  • Accepted 25 November 2025
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Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article’s title, journal citation, and DOI. Funded by SCOAP3.

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