Impact of the QED corrections to the pion and kaon valence quark distribution functions: The valon model predictions

This paper presents a study on the valence parton distribution functions (PDFs) of the pion and the kaon, which plays a crucial role in understanding the structure and interactions of hadrons. The study utilizes the valon model, which assumes that each hadron consists of two or three valence quarks, each carrying a fraction of the hadron’s momentum. The valence PDFs of the pion and the kaon are calculated at a low initial scale and then evolved to higher scales using the QCD and the QED [Formula: see text] QCD Dokshitzer–Gribov–Lipatov–Altarelli–Parisi (DGLAP) evolution equations in Mellin space. A comparison is made between the obtained results and other theoretical and experimental data, demonstrating the predictive power of our approach for the pion and kaon PDFs in the context of the large hadron collider (LHC) as well. Furthermore, it is discovered that the pion valence PDFs moments agree with other phenomenological methods at different scales, indicating the consistency and reliability of our method.