Abstract.
The scale dependence of the ratios of parton distributions in a proton of a nucleus A and in the free proton, \(R_i^A(x,Q^2)=f_{i/A}(x,Q^2)/f_i(x,Q^2)\), is studied within the framework of the lowest order leading-twist DGLAP evolution. By evolving the initial nuclear distributions obtained with the GRV-LO and CTEQ4L sets at a scale \(Q_0^2\), we show that the ratios \(R_i^A(x,Q^2)\) are only moderately sensitive to the choice of a specific modern set of free parton distributions. We propose that to a good first approximation, this parton distribution set-dependence of the nuclear ratios \(R_i^A(x,Q^2)\) can be neglected in practical applications. With this result, we offer a numerical parametrization of \(R_i^A(x,Q^2)\) for all parton flavours i in any \(A>2\), and at any \(10^{-6}\le x \le 1\) and any \(2.25 {\rm GeV}^2\le Q^2\le 10^4\,{\rm GeV}^2\) for computing cross sections of hard processes in nuclear collisions.
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Received: 10 August 1998 / Published online: 27 April 1999
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Eskola, K., Kolhinen, V. & Salgado, C. The scale dependent nuclear effects in parton distributions for practical applications. Eur. Phys. J. C 9, 61–68 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1007/s100529900005
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s100529900005