Significance of radiative corrections on measurements of the EMC effect

Abstract

Deep inelastic scattering from nuclear targets probes the parton distribution functions (PDFs) in nuclei. Comparisons of the PDFs from heavy nuclei and the deuteron show deviations that demonstrate a nontrivial nuclear dependence to these distributions, referred to as the EMC effect. A global analysis of the world's data on the EMC effect reveals tensions between different extractions. Precise measurements at Jefferson Lab, studying the dependence on both the quark momentum fraction, $x$, and nuclear mass, show systematic discrepancies among experiments, making the extraction of the A dependence of the EMC effect sensitive to the selection of datasets. By comparing various methods and assumptions used to calculate radiative corrections, we have identified differences that, while not large, significantly impact the EMC ratios and show that using a consistent radiative correction procedure resolves this discrepancy, leading to a more coherent global picture and allowing for a more robust extraction of the EMC effect for infinite nuclear matter.