The fraction of the longitudinal momentum of ${}^3\mathrm{He}$ that is carried by the isovector combination of $u$ and $d$ quarks is determined using lattice QCD for the first time. The ratio of this combination to that in the constituent nucleons is found to be consistent with unity at the few-percent level from calculations with quark masses corresponding to $m_{\pi }\sim 800\mathrm{MeV}$. With a naive extrapolation to the physical quark masses, this constraint is consistent with, and more precise than, determinations from global nuclear parton distribution function fits through the nnnpdf framework. It is thus concretely demonstrated that lattice QCD calculations of light nuclei have imminent potential to enable more precise determinations of the $u$ and $d$ parton distributions in light nuclei and to reveal the QCD origins of the EMC effect.

• Received 22 September 2020
• Accepted 19 April 2021

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.126.202001

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Published by the American Physical Society