Transverse-momentum-dependent pion structures from lattice QCD: Collins-Soper kernel, soft factor, TMDWF, and TMDPDF

Abstract

We present the first lattice quantum chromodynamics (QCD) calculation of the pion valence-quark transverse-momentum-dependent parton distribution function (TMDPDF) within the framework of large-momentum effective theory (LaMET). Using correlators fixed in the Coulomb gauge (CG), we computed the quasi-TMD beam function for a pion with a mass of 300 MeV, a fine lattice spacing of $a=0.06$ fm and multiple large momenta up to 3 GeV. The intrinsic soft functions in the CG approach are extracted from form factors with large momentum transfer, and as a byproduct, we also obtain the corresponding Collins-Soper (CS) kernel. Our determinations of both the soft function and the CS kernel agree with perturbation theory at small transverse separations ($b_{\perp }$) between the quarks. At larger $b_{\perp }$, the CS kernel remains consistent with recent results obtained using both CG and gauge-invariant TMD correlators in the literature. By combining next-to-leading logarithmic (NLL) factorization of the quasi-TMD beam function and the soft function, we obtain $x$-dependent pion valence-quark TMDPDF for transverse separations $b_{\perp }\gtrsim 1$ fm. Interestingly, we find that the $b_{\perp }$ dependence of the phenomenological parameterizations of TMDPDF for moderate values of $x$ are in reasonable agreement with our QCD determinations. In addition, we present results for the transverse-momentum-dependent wave function (TMDWF) for a heavier pion with 670 MeV mass.

Updated with the PRD version