Pion and kaon parton distribution functions from basis light front quantization and QCD evolution.

We investigate the parton distribution functions (PDFs) of the pion and the kaon by combining QCD evolution with the basis light front quantization (BLFQ). The initial PDFs result from the light front wave functions obtained by diagonalizing the effective Hamiltonian consisting of the holographic quantum chromodynamics (QCD) confinement potential, a complementary longitudinal confinement potential, and the color-singlet Nambu--Jona-Lasinio (NJL) interactions. The valence-quark PDF of the pion, after QCD evolution, is consistent with the experimental data from the E-0615 experiment at Fermilab. Meanwhile, the calculated pion structure function agrees with the ZEUS and the H1 experiments at DESY-HERA for large $x$. Additionally, the ratio of the up quark PDF of the kaon to that of the pion is in agreement with the NA-003 experiment at CERN. We also present the cross section for the pion-nucleus induced Drell-Yan process with the obtained pion PDFs supplemented by the PDFs of the target nuclei.