Nucleon sea and the five-quark components

Abstract

We generalize the approach of Brodsky {\it et al.} for the intrinsic charm quark distribution in the nucleons to the light-quark sector involving intrinsic $\bar u, \bar d, s$ and $\bar s$ sea quarks. We compare the calculations with the existing $\bar d - \bar u$, $s + \bar s$, and $\bar u + \bar d - s -\bar s$ data. The good agreement between the theory and the data is interpreted as evidence for the existence of the intrinsic light-quark sea in the nucleons. The probabilities for the $|uudu\bar{u}>$, $|uudd\bar{d}>$ and $|uuds\bar{s}>$ Fock states are also extracted.