Past exam of the particle physics course of the University of Oxford / 2018 / 2 / a

The valence quark distributions describe net quark content: $\int u_v(x)dx=2$ and $\int d_v(x)dx=1$ for a proton. Their momentum densities $x{u}_v,x{d}_v$ are small at very small $x$, peak at moderate momentum fractions, and vanish toward $x=1$, where one parton carrying almost all proton momentum is unlikely. The larger $u$ distribution reflects two valence up quarks and its comparatively harder shape; its pointwise value need not be exactly twice the down distribution.

The sea quark distribution is generated largely by gluon radiation and $g\to q\bar{q}$ splitting. It grows strongly toward small $x$ and falls at large $x$. The plotted sea curve is scaled by $0.05$, so it must be multiplied by twenty before numerical use. The total up-quark PDF isusing the valence-up distribution and the up-sea distribution. The summed sea curve alone does not fix $\bar{u}$ without a flavour assumption. Under the later stated four-flavour symmetry, $\bar{u}=\Sigma /8$.