Quark masses are shown to play an important role in the nucleon sea. Our analysis using massive QCD splitting functions demonstrates the existence of two Feynman-$x$ sea regimes. For small $x$ the strange sea is larger while at large $x$ the non-strange light sea is dominant. This crossover effect has been observed in a phenomenological analysis by the CTEQ Collaboration. We also investigate the charm component in the nucleon.
Categories: hep-ph