Xu, Zhen-NiBinosi, DanieleChen, ChenRaya, KhépaniRoberts, Craig D.Rodríguez Quintero, José2026-02-252026-02-252025Xu, Z.-N., Binosi, D., Chen, C., Raya, K., Roberts, C. D., & Rodríguez-Quintero, J. (2025). Kaon distribution functions from empirical information. Physics Letters B, 865, 139451. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.physletb.2025.1394510370-26931873-2445 (electrónico)https://hdl.handle.net/10272/28005Using available information from Drell-Yan data on pion and kaon structure functions, an approach is described which enables the development of pointwise profiles for all pion and kaon parton distribution functions (DFs) without reference to theories of hadron structure. The key steps are construction of structure-function-constrained probability-weighted ensembles of valence DF replicas and use of an evolution scheme for parton DFs that is allorders exact. The DFs obtained express qualitatively sound features of light-meson structure, e.g., the effects of Higgs boson couplings into QCD and the size of heavy-quark momentum fractions in light hadrons. In order to improve the results, additional and more precise data on the 𝑢-quark-in-kaon, u𝐾, to 𝑢-quark-in-pion, u𝜋, DF ratio would be necessary. Of greater value would be extraction of u𝐾 alone, thereby avoiding inference from the ratio: currently, the data-based form of u𝐾 is materially influenced by results for u𝜋.engAttribution 4.0 Internationalhttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Continuum Schwinger function methodsDrell-Yan reactionsEmergence of massMeson structure functionsNambu-Goldstone bosonsParton distribution functionsjournal article10.1016/j.physletb.2025.139451open access2207 Física Atómica y Nuclear