Final state interactions and gauge invariant parton distributions

Parton distributions contain factorizable final state interaction effects originating from the fast-moving struck quark interacting with the target spectators in deeply inelastic scattering. We show that these interactions give rise to gauge invariance of the transverse momentum-dependent parton distributions. As compared to previous analyses, our study demonstrates the existence of extra scaling contributions from transverse components of the gauge potential at the light-cone infinity. They form a transverse gauge link which is indispensable for restoration of the gauge invariance of Parton distributions in the light-cone gauge where the gauge potential does not vanish asymptotically. Our finding helps to explain a number of features observed in a model calculation of structure functions in the light-cone gauge. (C) 2003 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.