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Scaling properties of nuclear parton distributions in short-range-correlation motivated two-component parametrization

Petja Paakkinen*

  • *Contact author: petja.k.m.paakkinen@jyu.fi
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Phys. Rev. D 113, 094018 – Published 8 May, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/kzwm-czbb

Abstract

We provide some critical remarks on the recently proposed two-component parametrization of nuclear parton distribution functions, which was motivated by the apparent correlation between the nuclear modifications of structure functions and nucleon-nucleon short-range-correlation phenomena. This parametrization, we show, is invariant under a rescaling transformation of the involved abundance coefficients, which means that the global normalization of these coefficients cannot be meaningfully determined in a fit, and only their ratios should be studied for finding evidence of short-range-correlation–type behavior at parton level. As we show, however, the current constraints for the nuclear-mass dependence of these coefficients allow also for interpretations different from short-range correlations. Nevertheless, this two-component parametrization exhibits a similar scaling relation for deep inelastic scattering structure functions as demonstrated in earlier works, and, as we demonstrate, yields testable predictions for structure-function and hard-process cross-section ratios. We also note on the nontrivial isospin dependence of the short-range-correlation motivated parametrization, which under the proton-neutron pair dominance assumption can lead to charge-symmetry-violation resembling terms.

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Phys. Rev. D 113, 094018– Published 8 May, 2026
  • Received 12 December 2025
  • Accepted 30 March 2026
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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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