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Research Publication

Valence quark structure of rho meson using light-front quark model

A comprehensive partonic portrait of the rho meson in light-front quark model, featuring all nine leading-twist TMDs — including tensor polarizations unique to spin-1.

Authors

S. Puhan, S. Sharma, N. Kumar, and H. Dahiya

Journal

Accepted in PRD

Date

November 01, 2025

Abstract

We investigate the partonic structure of the rho meson, the lightest spin-1 vector meson, within the light-front quark model (LFQM). To explore the sensitivity to model assumptions, we employ two distinct types of spin wave functions in the LFQM. Using light-front helicity wave functions, we derive explicit expressions for the leading-twist and subleading-twist quark parton distribution functions (PDFs), and evolve the leading-twist PDFs to higher scales with next-to-leading order (NLO) Dokshitzer-Gribov-Lipatov-Altarelli-Parisi (DGLAP) evolution. We have also calculated the Mellin moment from the evolved PDFs using a simple neural network frame and compared with available theoretical predictions. Furthermore, we compute the full set of nine leading-twist transverse-momentum-dependent distributions (TMDs) for the valence quark in the rho meson, including three tensor TMDs that arise from spin-1 tensor polarization of the hadron. Positivity constraints for the PDFs and TMDs are examined within this framework. Our findings highlight the crucial role of tensor polarization in shaping the three-dimensional partonic structure of vector mesons.

Summary

Comprehensive study of rho meson partonic structure using two distinct spin wave functions in LFQM. Computes all nine leading-twist TMDs including three tensor TMDs unique to spin-1, and evolves PDFs via NLO DGLAP.

Authors: S. Puhan, S. Sharma, N. Kumar, and H. Dahiya
Published in: Accepted in PRD

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