Strange mesons with one dynamical gluon: A light-front approach

Abstract: We obtain the mass spectra of strange mesons using a light-front quantized Hamiltonian with Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD) input, incorporating quark-antiquark and quark-antiquark-gluon Fock components, along with a three-dimensional confinement. We work within the basis light-front quantization framework. The resulting eigenvectors can simultaneously describe the kaon's electromagnetic form factor, decay constant, distribution amplitude, and quark and gluon distribution functions under QCD scale evolution. Using the obtained kaon parton distribution functions (PDFs), supplemented by established nuclear PDFs, we also predict the kaon-nucleus-induced Drell-Yan cross section, which is expected to be measured soon by COMPASS++/AMBER at CERN.