Uncertainties in the parametrization of Parton Distribution Functions (PDFs) are becoming a serious limiting systematic uncertainty in Large Hadron Collider (LHC) searches for Beyond the Standard Model physics. This is especially true for measurements at high scales induced by quark and anti-quark collisions, where Drell-Yan continuum backgrounds are dominant. Tools are recently available which enable exploration of PDF fitting strategies and emulate the effects of new data in a future global fit. ePump is such a tool and it is shown that judicious selection of measurable kinematical quantities can reduce the assigned systematic PDF uncertainties by significant factors. This will be made possible by the huge statistical precision of future LHC Standard Model datasets.
We show that measurements of the forward-backward charge asymmetry ($A_{FB}(M,y)$) of Drell-Yan dilepton events produced at hadron colliders provide a new powerful tool to constrain Parton Distribution Functions (PDFs). PDF uncertainties are the dominant source of systematic error in precision measurements at hadron colliders (e.g. $χ^2$ values of fits to extract $\sin^2θ_{eff}^{lept}(M_Z)$ from $A_{FB}(M,y)$ with different PDF replicas can be used to place additional constraints on PDFs.In turn, using these constrained PDFs significantly reduces the PDF errors in precision measurements of ele…
We propose a new observable for the measurement of the forward-backward asymmetry $(A_{FB})$ in Drell-Yan lepton production. At hadron colliders, the $A_{FB}$ distribution is sensitive to both the electroweak (EW) fundamental parameter $\sin^2 θ_{W}$, the weak mixing angle, and the parton distribution functions (PDFs). Hence, the determination of $\sin^2 θ_{W}$ and the updating of PDFs by directly using the same $A_{FB}$ spectrum are strongly correlated. This correlation would introduce large bias or uncertainty into both precise measurements of EW and PDF sectors. In this article, we show tha…
We discuss the sensitivity of theoretical predictions of observables used in searches for new physics to parton distributions (PDFs) at large momentum fraction $x$. Specifically, we consider the neutral-current Drell-Yan production of gauge bosons with invariant masses in the TeV range, for which the forward-backward asymmetry of charged leptons from the decay of the gauge boson in its rest frame is a traditional probe of new physics. We show that the qualitative behaviour of the asymmetry depends strongly on the assumptions made in determining the underlying PDFs. We discuss and compare the l…
We have studied the prospects of using the Drell-Yan dilepton process in pion-nucleus collisions as a novel input in the global analysis of nuclear parton distribution functions (nPDFs). In a NLO QCD framework, we find the measured nuclear cross-section ratios from the NA3, NA10 and E615 experiments to be largely insensitive to the pion parton distributions and also compatible with the EPS09 and nCTEQ15 nPDFs. These data sets can thus be, and in EPPS16 have been, included in global nPDF analyses without introducing significant new theoretical uncertainties or tension with the other data. In pa…
The uncertainties in Parton Distribution Functions (PDFs) are the dominant source of the systematic uncertainty in precision measurements of electroweak parameters at hadron colliders (e.g. $\sin^2θ_{eff}(M_Z)$, $\sin^2θ_{W}=1-M_W^2/M_Z^2$ and the mass of the W boson). We show that measurements of the forward-backward charge asymmetry ($A_{FB}(M,y)$) of Drell-Yan dilepton events produced at hadron colliders provide a new powerful tool to reduce the PDF uncertainties in these measurements.
We study the impact of future measurements of lepton-charge and forward-backward asymmetries on PDF determination. These results have been obtained employing standard profiling procedures and the open-source platform xFitter. The potential of the combination of charged-current and neutral-current Drell-Yan asymmetries in regions of transverse and invariant masses near the W/Z bosons peaks to improve the PDF uncertainties has also been explored.
This article presents the review of the current understanding on the pion-nucleon Drell-Yan process from the point of view of the TMD factorization. Using the evolution formalism for the unpolarized and polarized TMD distributions developed recently, we provide the theoretical expression of the relevant physical observables, namely, the unpolarized cross section, the Sivers asymmetry, and the $\cos2ϕ$ asymmetry contributed by the double Boer-Mulders effects. The corresponding phenomenology, particularly at the kinematical configuration of the COMPASS $πN$ Drell-Yan facility, is displayed numer…
Using a previous extraction of the quark Boer-Mulders distributions from semiinclusive deep inelastic scattering data, we fit the unpolarized Drell-Yan data on the $\cos 2 ϕ$ asymmetry, determining the antiquark Boer-Mulders distributions. A good agreement with the data is found in the region of low $q_T$, where the transverse-momentum factorization approach applies.
We present a next-to-next-to-leading order accurate description of Drell-Yan lepton pair production processes through $γ^*/Z$ or $W$ exchange that includes consistently parton shower effects. Results are obtained by upgrading the vector-boson plus one jet NLO calculation in POWHEG with the MiNLO procedure and by applying an appropriate reweighting procedure making use of the DYNNLO program. We compare to existing data and to accurate resummed calculations.
The recent computation on the full threshold contributions to Higgs boson production at next-to-next-to-next-to-leading order (N$^3$LO) in QCD contains valuable information on the soft gluons resulting from virtual and real emission partonic subprocesses. We use those from the real emissions to obtain the corresponding soft gluon contributions to Drell-Yan production and determine the missing $δ(1-z)$ part of the N$^3$LO. The numerical impact of threshold effects demonstrates the importance of our results in the precision study with the Drell-Yan process at the LHC.
We present a detailed study of the charged current Drell-Yan process, which includes the exact O(alpha) electroweak corrections properly matched with leading-log effects due to multiple-photon emission, as required by the experiments at the Tevatron and the LHC. Numerical results for the relevant observables of single W boson production at hadron colliders are presented. The impact of the radiative corrections and of some sources of theoretical uncertainty is discussed in detail. The calculation has been implemented in the new version of the event generator HORACE, which is available for preci…
Successful realization of polarized Drell-Yan physics program is one of the main goals of the second stage of the COMPASS experiment. Drell-Yan measurements with high energy (190 GeV/c) pion beam and transversely polarized NH3 target have been initiated by a pilot-run in the October 2014 and will be followed by 140 days of data taking in 2015. In the past twelve years COMPASS experiment performed series of SIDIS measurements with high energy muon beam and transversely polarized deuteron and proton targets. Results obtained for Sivers effect and other target transverse spin dependent and unpola…
In the Higgsless models, there are extra gauge bosons which keep the perturbative unitarity of a longitudinally polarized gauge boson. The three-site Higgsless model is a minimal Higgsless model and contains three extra gauge bosons, $W^{\prime \pm}$ and Z'. In this paper, we report the discovery potential of the Z' gauge boson via Drell-Yan production with Z'(mass=380, 500, 600 GeV) $\rightarrow WW \rightarrow \ellνqq$ ($\ell=e$, $μ$) at the LHC ($\sqrt{s}$=14 TeV).
This study focuses on the multiple parton scattering theory as a background for the new measurement of the inclusive cross section of the vector boson pair production at the LHC energies. The process under study is the double Drell-Yan annihilation. In this case, two quark-antiquark annihilations occur independently in one proton-proton annihilation. The final state with two pairs of leptons (electron or muon pair) is investigated while the intermedial vector boson can be both gamma and Z.
Generalized transverse momentum dependent parton distributions (GTMDs) are the most general parton correlation functions of hadrons. By considering the exclusive double Drell-Yan process it is shown for the first time how quark GTMDs can be measured. Specific GTMDs can be addressed by means of polarization observables.
The Drell-Yan massive lepton-pair production in hadronic collisions provides a unique tool complementary to the Deep-Inelastic Scattering for probing the partonic substructures in hadrons. We review key concepts, approximations, and progress for QCD factorization of the Drell-Yan process in terms of collinear or transverse momentum dependent (TMD) parton distribution functions. We present experimental results from recent fixed-target Drell-Yan as well as $W$ and $Z$ boson production at colliders, focussing on the topics of flavor structure of the nucleon sea as well as the extraction of novel …
We study the Sivers single spin asymmetry of the Drell-Yan lepton pair production in the small-$x$ regime. We find that in the corresponding kinematic region the spin asymmetry calculated in the small-$x$ approach is consistent with either the usual transverse-momentum-dependent factorization formalism or the collinear factorization formalism, respectively. We estimate the Sivers asymmetry for both polarized p+p and p+A collisions and argue that the Drell-Yan production is an interesting and unique probe for both the transverse spin physics and the small-$x$ saturation effect.
We study the azimuthal asymmetries in proton-proton Drell-Yan processes with one incident proton being transversely or longitudinally polarized. We consider particularly the asymmetries contributed by the leading-twist chiral-odd quark distributions. We analyze the asymmetries with $\sin(2ϕ+ϕ_S)$ and $\sin(2ϕ-ϕ_S)$ modulations in transverse single polarized $p^\uparrow p$ Drell-Yan and $\sin2ϕ$ asymmetries in longitudinal single polarized $p^\rightarrow p$ Drell-Yan at RHIC, J-PARC, E906 (Fermi Lab) and NICA (JINR). We show that the measurements of the asymmetries in those facilities can provi…
We study the $\sin2ϕ$ azimuthal asymmetry in the $πN$ Drell-Yan process, when the nucleon is longitudinally polarized. The asymmetry is contributed by the combination of the Boer-Mulders function and the longitudinal transversity distribution function. We consider the Drell-Yan processes by $π^\pm$ beams colliding on the proton and deuteron targets, respectively. We calculate the $\sin2ϕ$ azimuthal asymmetries in these processes using the Boer-Mulders function and the longitudinal transversity from spectator models. We show that the study on single polarized $πN$ Drell-Yan processes can not on…
The roles of the Drell-Yan experiments in studying the Transverse-Momentum-Dependent (TMD) parton distributions are discussed. Recent results from the Fermilab E866 experiment on the angular distributions of Drell-Yan dimuons in $p+p$ and $p+d$ at 800 GeV/c are presented. These data are compared with the pion-induced Drell-Yan data, and with models which attribute the $\cos 2 ϕ$ azimuthal distribution to the presence of the transverse-momentum-dependent Boer-Mulders structure function $h_1^\perp$. Constraints on the magnitude of the sea-quark $h_1^\perp$ structure functions are obtained. Futur…
The effects of parton energy loss in nuclear matter on the Drell-Yan process in pA and $π$A collisions at fixed-target energies are investigated. Calculations are based on the Baier-Dokshitzer-Mueller-Peigné-Schiff (BDMPS) framework embedded in a next-to-leading order calculation, using the transport coefficient extracted from $J/ψ$ measurements. Model calculations prove in good agreement with preliminary measurements by the E906 experiment, despite a slightly different magnitude, supporting a consistent picture between Drell-Yan and $J/ψ$ data. Predictions for the COMPASS future measurements …
The potential of the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) experiment to measure Drell-Yan muon pairs is discussed. Muon pairs can be measured in CMS with high precision up to very high invariant masses. The systematic errors are considered. The potential to carry out precise measurements of the forward-backward asymmetry is discussed.
In this note I report and discuss the physical scheme and the main approximations used by the event generator code DY\_AB. This Monte Carlo code is aimed at preliminary simulation, during the stage of apparatus planning, of Drell-Yan events characterized by azimuthal asymmetries, in experiments with moderate center of mass energy $\sqrt{s}$ $<<$ 100 GeV.
