Multiple Parton Scattering in Nuclei: Twist-Four Nuclear Matrix Elements and Off-Forward Parton Distributions

Abstract

Multiple parton scatterings inside a large nucleus generally involve higher-twist nuclear parton matrix elements. The gluon bremsstrahlung induced by multiple scattering depends not only on direct parton matrix elements but also on momentum-crossed ones, due to the Landau-Pomeranchuk-Migdal interference effect. We show that both types of twist-four nuclear parton matrix elements can be factorized approximately into the product of twist-two nucleon matrix elements in the limit of extremely large nuclei, $A\to \infty$, as assumed in previous studies. Due to the correlative nature of the twist-four matrix elements under consideration, it is actually the off-forward parton distributions that appear naturally in this decomposition, rather than the ordinary diagonal distributions probed in deeply-inelastic scattering. However, we argue that the difference between these two distribution classes is small in certain kinematic regimes. In these regions, the twist-four nuclear parton matrix elements are evaluated numerically and compared to the factorized form for different nuclear sizes within a schematic model of the two-nucleon correlation function. The nuclear size dependence is found to be $A^{4/3}$ in the limit of large $A$, as expected. We find that the factorization is reasonably good when the momentum fraction carried by the gluon field is moderate. The deviation can be more than a factor of 2, however, for small gluon momentum fractions, where the gluon distribution is very large.