Strange/anti-strange asymmetry in the nucleon sea

We analyze the non-perturbative structure of the strange sea of the nucleon within a meson cloud picture. In a low Q(2) approach in which the nucleon is viewed as a three valon bound state, we evaluate the probability distrib ution of an in-nucleon Kaon-Hyperon pair in terms of splitting functions an d recombination. The resulting kaon and hyperon probability densities are c onvoluted with suitable strange distributions inside the meson and baryon i n order to obtain non-perturbative contributions to the strange sea of the nucleon. We find a structured strange/anti-strange asymmetry, displaying a dear excess of quarks (anti-quarks) for large (small) momentum fractions. ( C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.