We investigate open charm meson production in fixed-target LHCb experiment at $\sqrt{s}=86.6$ GeV in $p+^4\!\mathrm{He}$ collisions. Theoretical calculations of charm cross section are done in the framework of the $k_{T}$-factorization approach. Its application in the kinematical range never examined before is carefully discussed. We consider different schemes for the calculations relevant for different unintegrated (transverse momentum dependent) parton densities in a proton. We include in the analysis both CCFM- and DGLAP-based models of unintegrated parton distributions appropriate for the considered kinematics. Integrated as well as differential cross sections as a function of $D^{0}$ meson rapidity and transverse momentum are shown and compared with the experimental data. As a reference point, predictions of next-to-leading order collinear approach are also presented and discussed. A very good agreement between the experimental data and the $k_{T}$-factorization predictions was obtained. Both the CCFM and the DGLAP-based frameworks for parton distributions in a proton are successfully used to explain the LHCb fixed-target open charm cross section.
We discuss various issues related to the definition of single and double open charm cross sections. We conclude that LHCb's extraction of sigma_effective, the effective cross section for double-parton scattering, is too large by a factor of two. This correction brings the data from open-charm pairs closer to that from J/psi plus open charm and jet production.
One of the most popular definition for the charm-quark mass is the charm-quark pole mass $m_c^{\rm pole}$. In this contribution, we extract the charm-quark pole mass through perturbative Quantum Chromo Dynamics (pQCD) analysis up to the next-to-next-to-leading order (NNLO) corrections from HERA Combined and LHCb charm production recent data sets. Then, we investigate for the first time the charm-quark pole mass $m_c^{\rm pole}$ pure impact, as an extra pQCD parameter on the proton Parton Distribution Functions (PDFs) at the NNLO corrections.
In this paper we review the hadroproduction mechanisms of double-charm baryons for the different experimental environments and reinterpret the SELEX and LHCb results.
The recent measurement of $ΔA_{CP}$ by the LHCb collaboration requires an ${\cal O}(10)$ enhancement coming from hadronic physics in order to be explained within the SM. We examine to what extent can NP models explain $ΔA_{CP}$ without such enhancements. We discuss the implications in terms of a low energy effective theory as well as in the context of several explicit NP models.
We discuss the decay of Bc mesons into two light mesons (pi, K^(*), eta', rho, omega, phi). All these decay channels come from a single type of diagram, namely tree annihilation. This allows us to derive extremely simple SU(3) relations among these processes. The size of annihilation contributions is an important issue in B physics, and we provide two different estimates in the case of non-leptonic charmless Bc decays, either a comparison with annihilation decays of heavy-light mesons or a perturbative model inspired by QCD factorisation. We finally discuss a possible search for these channels…
Inspired by the observation of the fully-charm tetraquark $X(6900)$ state at LHCb, the production of $X(6900)$ in $\bar{p}p\rightarrow J/ψJ/ψ$ reaction is studied within an effective Lagrangian approach and Breit-Wigner formula. The numerical results show that the cross section of $X(6900)$ at the c.m. energy of 6.9 GeV is much larger than that from the background contribution. Moreover, we estimate dozens of signal events can be detected by D0 experiment, which indicates that searching for the $X(6900)$ via antiproton-proton scattering may be a very important and promising way. Therefore, rel…
LHCb is a dedicated heavy flavour physics precision experiment at the LHC searching for New Physics (NP) beyond the Standard Model (SM) through the study of very rare decays of beauty and charm-flavoured hadrons and precision measurements of CP-violating observables. In this review I will present a selection of recent precision measurements of CP-violating observables in the decays of beauty and charm-flavoured hadrons. These measurements are based on an integrated luminosity of up to $1.0 \rm{fb}^{-1}$ collected by LHCb in 2011.
The antiquark-diquark-diquark model describes pentaquark states both in terms of quarks and hadrons. We discuss pentaquark states with hidden charm $P(\bar c cuud)$ discovered in the $J/Ψp$ spectrum by the LHCb collaboration. We consider three pentaquark states as members of the lowest ($S$-wave) multiplet and discuss the mass splitting scheme. The latest LHCb data for pentaquarks with hidden charm provide an opportunity to make an assumption about the diquark content of the pentaquark states. We give a classification for the LHCb pentaquarks and define recombination channels for these states.
In these proceedings, we explore the possible reach of the LHCb dataset in the area of charm semileptonic decays. Specifically, we give prospects for the measurement of $|V_{cs}|/|V_{cd}|$ using $\mathcal{B}(D^0\to K^-μ^+ν_μ)/\mathcal{B}(D^0\toπ^-μ^+ν_μ)$ with Run I data. Preliminary projections show that the LHCb Run I dataset would give a relative statistical uncertainty of $\sim 0.2\%$ on this ratio. We also motivate the search for lepton non-universality in the charm sector.
LHCb collaboration has recently announced a measurement of the difference of time-integrated CP asymmetries between $D\rightarrow K^+K^-$ and $D \rightarrow π^+π^-$. This result provides the evidence of large direct CP violation in $D$ meson and reveals some important implications on underlying new physics. It is shown that the direct CP violation in $D$ meson can be enhanced by R-parity violating supersymmetry, while CP violations in $K$ and $B$ mesons are suppressed by this new physics, which is in consistence with previous experiments. Constraints on the model parameters and some consequenc…
In this paper we show that the intrinsic heavy-quark QCD mechanism for the hadroproduction of heavy hadrons at large $x_F$ can resolve the apparent conflict between measurements of double-charm baryons by the SELEX fixed-target experiment and the LHCb experiment at the LHC collider. We show that both experiments are compatible, and that both results can be correct. The observed spectroscopy of double-charm hadrons is in agreement with the predictions of supersymmetric light front holographic QCD.
The LHCb has discovered two new states with preferred $J^P$ quantum numbers $3/2^-$ and $5/2^+$ from $Λ_b$ decays. These new states can be interpreted as hidden charm pentaquarks. It has been argued that the main features of these pentaquarks can be described by diquark model. The diquark model predicts that the $3/2^-$ and $5/2^+$ are in two separate octet multiplets of flavor $SU(3)$ and there is also an additional decuplet pentaquark multiplet. Finding the states in these multiplets can provide crucial evidence for this model. The weak decays of b-baryon to a light meson and a pentaquark ca…
At LHCb, proton parton distribution functions (PDFs) can be studied in a unique phase space complementary to that accessible by ATLAS and CMS, corresponding to low and high values of Bjorken-$x$. The measurements of vector boson production in the forward region, with and without an associated jet, are presented. These measurements can be used to constrain the proton PDFs, and in particular, the production of a $Z$ boson in association with a $c$-jet can be studied to measure the intrinsic charm content of the proton.
Our community has to apply {\em non}-perturbative QCD on different levels of flavor dynamics in strange, charm \& beauty hadrons and even for top quarks. We need {\em consistent} parameterization of the CKM matrix and describe weak decays of beauty hadrons with {\em many-body} final states. It is crucial to use the {\em Wilsonian} OPE as much as possible and discuss "duality" in the worlds of quarks and hadrons. The pole mass of heavy quarks is {\em not} well-defined on the {\em non}-perturbative level -- i.e., it is {\em not} Borel summable in total QCD. We need a novel team to combine the st…
The pentaquark $P_c^+(4450)$ recently discovered by LHCb has been interpreted as a bound state of $Ψ(2S)$ and nucleon. The charmonium-nucleon interaction which provides the binding mechanism is given, in the heavy quark limit, in terms of charmonium chromoelectric polarizabilities and densities of the nucleon energy-momentum tensor (EMT). In this work we show in model-independent way, by exploring general properties of the effective interaction, that $Ψ(2S)$ can form bound states with nucleon and $Δ$. Using the Skyrme model to evaluate the effective interaction in the large-$N_c$ limit and est…
The LHCb collaboration has recently performed a first measurement of the angular production asymmetry in the distribution of beauty quarks and anti-quarks at a hadron collider. We calculate the corresponding standard model prediction for this asymmetry at fixed-order in perturbation theory. Our results show good agreement with the data, which is provided differentially for three bins in the invariant mass of the $b \bar b$ system. We also present similar predictions for both beauty-quark and charm-quark final states within the LHCb acceptance for a collision energy of $\sqrt{s} = 13 \, {\rm Te…
After playing a pivotal role in the birth of the Standard Model in the 70's, the study of charm physics has undergone a revival during the last decade, triggered by a wealth of precision measurements from the charm and $B$ factories, and from the CDF and especially the LHCb experiments. In this article, we sum up how the unique phenomenology of charmed hadrons can be used to test the Standard Model and we review the latest measurements performed in this field by the LHCb experiment. These include the historic first observations of $CP$ violation and of a nonzero mass difference between the cha…
We quantify the impact of LHCb D-meson measurements at $\sqrt{s}=5 \, {\rm TeV}$ on the EPPS16 and nCTEQ15 nuclear PDFs. In our study, the theoretical description of D-meson production is based on the recently developed SACOT-$m_{\rm T}$ variant of the general-mass variable-flavour-number formalism, and the impact on PDFs is estimated via reweighting methods. We pay special attention on the theoretical uncertainties known to us, and are led to exclude the $p_{\rm T}<3 \, {\rm GeV}$ region from our main analysis. The LHCb data can be accommodated well within EPPS16 and nCTEQ15, and the data pro…
The production of D mesons in proton-proton collisions at the LHCb detector is studied. We consider the single production of D^0, D^+, D^star, and D_s^+ mesons and correlation spectra in the production of DbarD and DD pairs at the sqrt{S}=7 TeV and sqrt{S}=13 TeV. In case of the single D-meson production we calculate differential cross sections over transverse momentum p_T while in the pair DbarD,DD-meson production the cross sections are calculated over the azimuthal angle difference, rapidity difference, invariant mass of the pair M and over the p_T of the one meson from a pair. The cross se…
We study baryo-charmonium [$η_{\rm c}$- and $J/ψ$-$N^*$, $η_{\rm c}(2S)$-, $ψ(2S)$- and $χ_{\rm c}(1P)$-$N$] and baryo-bottomonium [$η_{\rm b}(2S)$-, $Υ(2S)$- and $χ_{\rm b}(1P)$-$N$] bound states, where $N$ is the nucleon and $N^*$ a nucleon resonance. In the baryo-quarkonium model, the five $qqq Q \bar Q$ quarks are arranged in terms of a heavy quarkonium core, $Q \bar Q$, embedded in light baryonic matter, $qqq$, with $q = u$ or $d$. The interaction between the $Q \bar Q$ core and the light baryon can be written in terms of the QCD multipole expansion. The spectrum of baryo-charmonium state…
Recently it has been put forward that linearly polarized gluons inside unpolarized protons affect the transverse momentum distribution of final state particles in hadronic collisions. They lead to a characteristic modulation of the differential cross section in Higgs production and to azimuthal asymmetries in, for instance, heavy quark pair production. Here we study the effect on charmonium and bottomonium production in hadronic collisions, such as at LHCb and at the proposed fixed target experiment AFTER at LHC. We focus mainly on the scalar and pseudoscalar quarkonia, eta_c, chi_{c0}, eta_b,…
The small-$x$ gluon in global fits of parton distributions is affected by large uncertainties from the lack of direct experimental constraints. In this work we provide a precision determination of the small-$x$ gluon from the exploitation of forward charm production data provided by LHCb for three different centre-of-mass (CoM) energies: 5~TeV, 7~TeV and 13~TeV. The LHCb measurements are included in the PDF fit by means of normalized distributions and cross-section ratios between data taken at different CoM values, $R_{13/7}$ and $R_{13/5}$. We demonstrate that forward charm production leads t…
Very recently, the LHCb Collaboration observed the $CP$ violation (CPV) in the charm sector for the first time, with $ΔA_{CP}^{\rm dir}\equiv A_{CP}(D^0\to K^+K^-)-A_{CP}(D^0\to π^+π^-)=(-1.54\pm0.29)\times10^{-3}$. This result is consistent with our prediction of $ΔA_{CP}^{\rm SM}=(-0.57\sim -1.87)\times 10^{-3}$ obtained in the factorization-assisted topological-amplitude (FAT) approach in [PRD86,036012(2012)]. It implies that the current understanding of the penguin dynamics in charm decays in the Standard Model is reasonable. Motivated by the success of the FAT approach, we further suggest…
In this work, we study the lepton flavor and lepton number violating $B_{c}$ meson decays via two intermediate on-shell Majorana neutrinos $N_j$ into two charged leptons and a charged pion $B_{c}^{\pm} \to μ^{\pm} \ N_j \to μ^{\pm} τ^{\pm} π^{\mp}$. We evaluated the possibility to measure the modulation of the decay width along the detector length produced as a consequence of the lepton flavor violating process, in a scenario where the heavy neutrinos masses range between $2.0$ GeV $\leq M_N \leq 6.0$ GeV. We study some realistic conditions which could lead to the observation of this phenomeno…
The production of weak gauge bosons in association with heavy flavored mesons at the LHCb conditions is considered, and a detailed study of the different contributing processes is presented including single (SPS) and double (DPS) parton scattering mechanisms. We find that the usual DPS factorization formula needs to be corrected for the limited partonic phase space, and that including the relevant corrections reduces discrepancies in the associated $ZD$ production. We conclude finally that double parton scattering dominates the production of same-sign $W^\pm D^\pm$ states, as well as the produ…
The LHCb collaboration recently announced preliminary evidence for CP violation in D meson decays. We discuss this result in the context of the standard model (SM), as well as its extensions. In the absence of reliable methods to evaluate the hadronic matrix elements involved, we can only estimate qualitatively the magnitude of the non-SM tree level operators required to generate the observed central value. In the context of an effective theory, we list the operators that can give rise to the measured CP violation and investigate constraints on them from other processes.
In this work, using the covariant light front approach with conventional vertex functions, we estimate the production rates of $D$-wave charmed/charmed-strange mesons via $B_{(s)}$ semileptonic decays. Due to these calculated considerable production rates, it is possible to experimentally search for $D$-wave charmed/charmed-strange mesons via the semileptonic decays, which may provide extra approach to explore $D$-wave charmed/charmed-strange mesons.
The CP violation of the neutral $B$ meson is the important phenomenon to search for the new physics. The like-sign dimuon charge asymmetry observed by the D$Ø$ Collaboration indicates the CP-violating new physics in the $B_s-\bar B_s$ mixing. On the other hand, LHCb observed the CP-violating asymmetry in $B_s^0\to J/ψϕ$ and $B_s^0\to J/ψf_0(980)$, which is consistent with the SM prediction. However, there is still room for new physics of the CP violation. The CKMfitter has presented the allowed region of the new physics parameters taking account of the LHCb data. Based on these results, we dis…
Studies of charmonium properties and production mechanism started with the discovery of $J/ψ$ meson. Since more than 40 years the charmonium production mechanism is still not entirely understood. Following the era of investigations at $e^+e^-$ machines, nowadays, charmonium states are copiously produced at hadron colliders, that allows systematic studies of their resonance parameters, production observables and decays. Despite large production rates, many charmonium states are barely studied due to the complications of their reconstruction against a large background level. The LHCb experiment …
Double open-charm production is one of the most promising channels to disentangle single from double parton scattering (DPS) and study different properties of DPS. Several studies of the DPS contributions have been made. A missing ingredient so far has been the study of polarization effects, arising from spin correlations between the two partons inside an unpolarized proton. We investigate the impact polarization has on the double open-charm cross section. We show that the longitudinally polarized gluons can give significant contributions to the cross section, but for most of the considered ki…
The asymmetric intrinsic charm in the nucleon and its implications for the $D^{0}$ production in the LHCb $p\!+\!\!^{20}\!N\!e$ fixed-target experiment
We propose a search for dark photons $A^{\prime}$ at the LHCb experiment using the charm meson decay $D^*(2007)^0 \!\to D^0 A^{\prime}$. At nominal luminosity, $D^{*0} \!\to D^0 γ$ decays will be produced at about 700kHz within the LHCb acceptance, yielding over 5 trillion such decays during Run 3 of the LHC. Replacing the photon with a kinetically-mixed dark photon, LHCb is then sensitive to dark photons that decay as $A^{\prime}\!\to e^+e^-$. We pursue two search strategies in this paper. The displaced strategy takes advantage of the large Lorentz boost of the dark photon and the excellent v…
We discuss production of neutral $D$ mesons in proton-proton collisions at the LHC (fixed target mode) in the framework of the BJM recombination model. We present rapidity and transverse momentum distributions of $D$ mesons and compare the recombination contribution to the dominant gluon-gluon fusion mechanism. Both the direct production, as dictated by the matrix element, and fragmentation of the associated $c$ or $\bar c$ are included. The latter mechanism generates $D$ mesons with smaller rapidities than those produced directly. We calculate the $D^0 + {\bar D^{0}}$ meson distributions rele…
It is well known that large nonfragmentational contributions to inclusive production of charmed particles appear at low energies. In the case of charm production in $B$-meson decays these contributions arise from the participation of the light valent quark from the $B$-meson and can be easily described phenomenologically. These contributions affect $D$-meson spectra and essentially change ratios between yields of different $D$-meson states.
Because of its forward coverage, LHCb can probe the valence quark distributions of protons and nuclei at small and large Bjorken-x with high precision. This proceeding presents new LHCb measurements of Z boson production in association with charm jet in the forward region of proton-proton collisions and Z boson production in proton-lead collisions. Z+charm jet production could be sensitive to a valence-like intrinsic-charm component in the proton wave function. The measurements of Z production in proton-lead collisions provide new constraints on the partonic structure of nucleons inside nuclei…
We discuss the impact of the new LHCb fixed-target $p\!+\!^{4}\!He$ data for $D^0/{\bar D}^0$ production on the intrinsic $c \bar c$ component in the nucleon wave function. Within the scenario presented here neither the traditional gluon-gluon fusion or quark-antiquark annihilation mechanisms calculated in the $k_T$-factorization approach nor their counterparts from the collinear next-to-leading order collinear framework are sufficient to describe the transverse momentum and rapidity distributions of $D^0/{\bar D}^0$ mesons. First the $c{\bar c}$-pair production within the standard frameworks …
We estimate the strong coupling constants of charmed and bottom mesons $ D_{(s)}^* $, $ D_{(s)1} $, $ B_{(s)}^* $, and $ B_{(s)1} $ with light vector mesons $ ρ$, $ ω$, $ K^* $, and $ ϕ$ within the framework of light-cone QCD sum rules. We compare our estimations to the ones predicted by other approaches.
The recently discovered $P_c(4380)^+$ and $P_c(4450)^+$ states at LHCb have masses close to the $\bar DΣ_c^*$ and $\bar D^*Σ_c$ thresholds, respectively, which suggest that they may have significant meson-baryon molecular components. We analyze these states in the framework of a constituent quark model which has been applied to a wide range of hadronic observables, being the model parameters, therefore, completely constrained. The $P_c(4380)^+$ and $P_c(4450)^+$ are studied as molecular states composed by charmed baryons and open charm mesons. Several bound states with the proper binding energ…
LHCb measurements of $B_{d,s} \to J/ψ+ X$ are shown to be consistent with historical data on scalar and axial mesons below 2 GeV. This is in contrast to some recent interpretations of these data. Further tests of our hypotheses in other $B_{u,d,s} \to J/ψ+ X$ decay modes are suggested.
Momenta of charmonia created in Pb-Pb collisions at the Large Hadron Collider are so large that three or more mesons may be produced when the charmonia collide with light mesons in hadronic matter. We study the meson-charmonium collision in a mechanism where the collision produces two quarks and two antiquarks, the charm quark then fragmenting into charmed mesons, and the other three constituents as well as quarks and antiquarks created from vacuum give rise to two or more mesons. The absolute square of the transition amplitude for the production of two quarks and two antiquarks is derived fro…
The chiral SU(3) Lagrangian with pseudoscalar and vector $D$ mesons and with the octet and decuplet baryons is considered. The leading two-body counter terms involving two baryon fields and two $D$ meson fields are constructed in the open-charm sector. There are 26 terms. A combined expansion in the inverse of the charm quark mass and in the inverse of the number of colors provides sum rules that reduce the number of free parameter down to 5 only. Our result shows the feasibility of a systematic computation of the open-charm baryon spectrum based on coupled-channel dynamics.
We present the formalism for the decay of dynamically generated scalar mesons with open- or hidden-charm and give results for the decay of D^*_{s0} (2317) to γD_s^* plus that of a hidden charm scalar meson state predicted by the theory around 3700 MeV decaying into γJ/ψ.
Using a constituent quark model we study the mass and decay channels of meson meson and meson baryon structures in the charm sector. We show that the $X(3872)$ and $X(3940)$ resonances can be described as mixed charmonium-molecular states with $J^{PC}=1^{++}$, whereas the $X(3915)$ and the $Y(3940)$ can be assigned to similar mixed states with $J^{PC}=0^{++}$. In the baryon spectrum we identify the $Λ^+_c(2940)$ as a $D^*N$ molecule with $(I)J^P=(0)3/2^-$ and the recently reported $X_c(3250)$ as a $D^*Δ$ resonance with $(I)J^P=(1)5/2^-$ or $(I)J^P=(2)3/2^-$.
Within the framework of heavy quark effective theory and chiral perturbation theory, masses and splittings of heavy charm mesons are studied. A mass formula is used for comprehensive analysis of low lying charm meson states.The variation of mass splittings and spin splittings with respect to various symmetry conserving and symmetry breaking parameters have also been focussed.
We scrutinize the recent LHCb data for D$^0$-meson production in p+Pb collisions within a next-to-leading order QCD framework. Our calculations are performed in the SACOT-$m_{\rm T}$ variant of the general-mass variable-flavour-number scheme (GM-VFNS), which has previously been shown to provide a realistic description of the LHC p+p data. Using the EPPS16 and nCTEQ15 nuclear parton distribution functions (PDFs) we show that a very good agreement is obtained also in the p+Pb case both for cross sections and nuclear modification ratios in the wide rapidity range covered by the LHCb data. Encoura…
Charmed meson production in semi-inclusive deep inelastic scattering is investigated in the color dipole formalism. The transverse momentum distributions are calculated. We find good agreement with the H1 data using a hard fragmentation function.
We review the prospects of measurements of the CKM matrix elements corresponding to the first two generations of quarks, as well as measurements of leptonic and semileptonic charm meson decays at LHCb. We review the status of searches for Lepton Non-Universality in the charm sector, and provide motivation to continue such searches.
We present a $U(4)_R \times U(4)_L$ chirally symmetric model, which in addition to scalar and pseudoscalar mesons also includes vector and axial-vector mesons. A part from the three new parameters pertaining to the charm degree of freedom, the parameters of the model are fixed from the $N_f=3$ flavor sector. We calculate open charmed meson masses and the weak decay constants of nonstrange open charm $D$ and strange open charm $D_S$. We also evaluate the (OZI-dominant) strong decays of open charmed mesons. The results are turn out to be in quantitative agreement with experimental data.
Observation in astronomy suggests that our Universe contains an abundance of matter over antimatter, which can only be explained if the combined CP symmetry is violated. Studies of CP violation have driven the flavor physics with the aim of testing the Standard Model of particle physics and searching for physics beyond. CP violation is discovered in strange, beauty and charm meson systems, however no conclusive sign of CP violation in baryon decays has been observed yet. This review summarizes CP violation studies performed by the LHCb experiment in charmless decays and rare decays of beauty b…
In this study, we investigate the discovery potential of double-charm tetraquarks $T^{\{cc\}}_{[\bar{q}\bar{q}']}$. We find that their production cross sections at the LHCb with $\sqrt{s} = 13$ TeV reach $\mathcal{O}(10^4)$ pb, which indicates that the LHCb has collected $\mathcal{O}(10^8)$ such particles. Through the decay channels of $T^{\{cc\}}_{[\bar{u}\bar{d}]}\to D^{+}K^{-}π^{+}$ or $D^0D^+γ$ (if stable) or $T^{\{cc\}}_{[\bar{u}\bar{d}]}\to D^0D^{*+}\to D^0D^0π^+$ (if unstable), it is highly expected that they get discovered at the LHCb in the near future. We also discuss the productions…
On March 26th, 2019, at the Rencontres de Moriond QCD conference, the LHCb Collaboration reported the observation of three new pentaquarks, namely $P_c(4312)$, $P_c(4440)$ and $P_c(4457)$, which are consistent with the loosely bound molecular hidden-charm pentaquark states composed of an S-wave charmed baryon $Σ_c$ and an S-wave anti-charmed meson ($\bar{D}, \bar{D}^*$). In this work, we present a direct calculation by the one-boson-exchange (OBE) model and demonstrate explicitly that the $P_c(4312)$, $P_c(4440)$ and $P_c(4457)$ do correspond to the loosely bound $Σ_c\bar{D}$ with $(I=1/2,J^P=…
We quantify the constraints on the flavour separation between the quarks and antiquarks in the proton provided by the recent forward weak gauge boson production data from the LHCb experiment at $\sqrt{s}=7$ and 8 TeV. Performed in the framework of the NNPDF3.1 global analysis, this study highlights the key role that the LHCb W and Z data have in achieving a robust quark flavour separation in the large-x region, including the strange and charm quarks. We demonstrate how the LHCb measurements lead to improved determinations of the the up and down quark PDFs in the region $x\ge 0.1$, with an unce…
In this high-$x$ region, both the flavour content and structure of the nucleon parton distribution functions remains relatively poorly known. New LHCb measurements of Z and charm jet associated production could indicate a valence-like intrinsic-charm component in the proton wave function, and measurements of Z production in pPb collisions provide new constraints on the partonic structure of nucleons bound inside nuclei. Here we will discuss these new LHCb measurements and comparisons with state-of-the-art parton distribution function calculations.