We obtain the pion and the kaon parton distribution functions from the eigenstates of a light front effective Hamiltonian in the constituent quark-antiquark representation suitable for low-momentum scale applications. By taking these scales as the only free parameters, the valence quark distribution functions of the pion, after QCD evolution, are consistent with the data from the FNAL-E615 experiment. The ratio of the up quark distribution of the kaon to that of the pion also agrees with the CERN-NA3 experiment. Supplemented by known parton distribution functions for the nucleons, we further obtain the cross section consistent with experimental data for the ${\pi }^{-}\text{nucleus}\to {\mu }^{+}{\mu }^{-}X$ Drell-Yan process.

• Received 2 February 2019
• Revised 19 March 2019

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.122.172001