Extracting nuclear transverse-momentum-dependent parton distributions in ⁴ <i>He</i>, ⁶ <i>Li</i>, ¹² <i>C</i>, and ¹⁴ <i>N</i> using chiral quark exchange model

Abstract The chiral quark model is applied within the quark exchange framework to derive unpolarized transverse momentum dependent (TMD) parton distribution functions for bound nucleons in 4 He , 6 Li , 12 C , and 14 N . The process begins by obtaining the TMD bare constituent quark distributions within the bound nucleons (nucleons within a nuclear system), followed by determining TMD valence quarks, TMD strange quarks, and TMD gluon distributions inside the up and down constituent quarks of these bound nucleons. The quark exchange model is utilized for the initial step in which we obtain the bare constituent quark momentum densities through a method employing light-cone variables, leading to the TMD bare constituent quark distributions. Subsequently, the various distributions inside a constituent quark are calculated using the chiral quark model, an effective theoretical approach for such distributions. We extract the TMD valence up- and down-quark, TMD strange quark, and TMD gluon distributions at low Q 2 for helium-4, lithium-6, carbon-12, and nitrogen-14. Our results demonstrate the expected properties for TMD parton distribution functions, and they have a good agreement with the various theoretical prediction reports.