Applications of Symmetry Breaking in Determining PDFs of the Nucleon

Abstract

Studying the possible breaking of various parton model symmetries by the parton distribution functions of the nucleon can provide important information for the non-perturbative structure of hadrons and the strong interaction. We review theoretical calculations for the breaking of flavor symmetry, quark-antiquark symmetry and charge symmetry in the unpolarized and polarized nucleons using the meson cloud model. We report an estimation for the total distribution of strange and antistrange quarks in the nucleon by combining theoretical calculations of SU(3) flavor symmetry breaking with light antiquark distributions obtained from global analysis of available experimental data.