Nuclear parton distributions — a DGLAP analysis Original Research Article

Nuclear parton distributions fA(x, Q2) are studied within a framework of the DGLAP evolution. Measurements of FA2/FD2 in deep inelastic lA collisions, and Drell-Yan dilepton cross sections measured in pA collisions are used as constraints. Also conservation of momentum and baryon number is required. It is shown that the calculated Q2 evolution of FSn2/FC2 agrees very well with the recent NMC data, and that the ratios RAf = fA/f are only moderately sensitive to the choice of a specific modern set of free parton distributions. For general use, we offer a numerical parametrization of RAf(x, Q2) for all parton flavours f in A > 2, and at 10−6 ≤ x ≤ 1 and 2.25 GeV2 ≤ Q2 ≤ 104 GeV2.