Pions in isospin asymmetric matter and nuclear Drell-Yan scattering

Abstract

Using a self-consistent delta-hole model the pion propagation in isospin asymmetric nuclear matter is studied. In neutron-rich matter, corresponding to heavy nuclei, a significant difference in positive and negative pion light-cone distributions is obtained leading to a nuclear enhancement of up antiquark distribution compared to the down antiquark one. This means that the sea-quark asymmetry in the free nucleon cannot be extracted model independently from an experiment on a neutron-rich nucleus.