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Global analyses of generalized parton distributions with diverse PDF inputs

Fatemeh Irani1,*, Muhammad Goharipour2,3,†, and K. Azizi1,4,3,‡ (The MMGPDs Collaboration)

  • *Contact author: f.irani@ut.ac.ir
  • †Contact author: muhammad.goharipour@ipm.ir
  • ‡Contact author: kazem.azizi@ut.ac.ir
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Phys. Rev. D 114, 014028 – Published 15 July, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/nx8f-mm3l

Abstract

This paper investigates the crucial role of parton distribution functions (PDFs) in high-energy physics, particularly their impact on the extraction of generalized parton distributions (GPDs) at zero skewness. To this aim, we perform six global analyses of GPDs using different modern PDF sets (NNPDF40, CT18, and MSHT20) at three specific factorization scales (μ=2, 1.3, and 1 GeV) and different perturbative orders. A wide range of elastic electron scattering data is included in the analysis to constrain GPDs in a broad interval in the momentum transfer squared t. The analyses reveal that the best overall description of experimental data is achieved using NNPDF40 PDFs at the next-to-leading order (NLO), with moderate sensitivity to the choice of PDF input, especially in the region of low t. The dependence on the perturbative order is relatively mild, indicating stability in the extraction procedure. We also show that different GPD sets become more consistent at larger |t| values, with down-quark GPDs experiencing greater suppression than up-quark GPDs. We show that the differences among the GPD parametrizations propagate into measurable quantities such as proton radii, leading to non-negligible variations in the extracted central values and uncertainties. The six extracted GPD sets, available at different scales and perturbative orders, provide valuable resources for future theoretical and phenomenological studies, offering flexibility for researchers in exploring the proton’s internal structure.

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Phys. Rev. D 114, 014028– Published 15 July, 2026
  • Received 19 March 2026
  • Accepted 12 June 2026
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