https://doi.org/10.1140/epja/s10050-025-01588-4
Regular Article - Theoretical Physics
Linear relation between short range correlation and EMC effect of gluons in nuclei
1
INPAC Key Laboratory for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology (MOE), Shanghai Key Laboratory for Particle Physics and Cosmology, School of Physics and Astronomy, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, 200240, Shanghai, China
2
School of Nuclear Science and Technology, Lanzhou University, 730000, Lanzhou, China
3
School of Physics and Microelectronics, Zhengzhou University, 450001, Zhengzhou, Henan, China
4
School of Physics and Optoelectronic Engineering, Shandong University of Technology, 255000, Zibo, Shandong, China
5
Department of Physics, Tianjin University, 300350, Tianjin, China
Received:
5
January
2025
Accepted:
11
May
2025
Published online:
22
May
2025
We explore the EMC effect of gluons through heavy quark production in deep inelastic scattering and the nucleon-nucleon short range correlation (SRC) from sub-threshold photoproduction of the 
. Applying an effective field theory analysis, we scrutinize the gluon parton distribution functions in nuclear environment and propose a linear relation between the slope of reduced cross section ratio, which reflects the magnitude of gluon EMC effect, and the production cross section at the photon energy 
in the nucleus rest frame, a characteristic representative of SRC. This finding is supported by a numerical calculation using the available phenomenological results for gluon nuclear parton distribution functions. Examining this linear relation by the forthcoming experimental data on electron–ion collider allows to decipher nuclear effects of gluon distributions and enhance our comprehension of the substructure in bound nuclei.
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© The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Società Italiana di Fisica and Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2025
Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.
