Alfonso Vázquez Ramallo

Light-front wavefunction of mesons

Supervisor: Meijian Li

This project focuses on developing light-front wavefunctions (LFWFs) for meson bound states using a compact basis function representation. We adopt an implicit-Hamiltonian approach, encoding system dynamics in the functional form and tunable parameters of the LFWFs. The basis functions are eigenfunctions of an effective Hamiltonian with both longitudinal and transverse confining potentials, the latter inspired by light-front holographic QCD. Parameters and coefficients will be determined using insights from nonrelativistic descriptions and experimental decay widths. The resulting LFWFs have a simple analytic form, enabling predictions of observables such as charge radii and parton distribution functions. We will also use these wavefunctions to study meson production in diffractive deep inelastic scattering, ultra-peripheral heavy-ion collisions, and transition form factors.

Some background in analytical methods, numerical computation, quantum mechanics, and particle physics is preferred.