Strange and non-strange sea quark–gluon effects in nucleons

Within a statistical approach, strange and non-strange quark–gluon Fock state contributions are analyzed for their low energy properties. A suitable wave function is written for a nucleon that consists of three valence quarks (qqq) and the sea (image). Expansion of the nucleonic system in terms of Fock states that contain (image) is assumed and the probabilities of all possible Fock states, that lead to such a wave-function containing strange and non-strange quark–gluon contents in the sea are determined. Various approximations are entertained to validate the authenticity of the model used. The statistically determined coefficients strongly favor a vector-dominated sea where the sea includes image pairs. Additionally, the sea is constrained to have a limited number of components. The phenomenological implications that affect the low energy properties are discussed. The obtained results are compared to existing theoretical models and experimental data.