Work

Nuclear effects in the proton-deuteron Drell-Yan process

Year: 2014

Type: article

Abstract: We compute the nuclear corrections to the proton-deuteron Drell-Yan cross section for inclusive dilepton production, which, when combined with the proton-proton cross section, is used to determine the flavor asymmetry in the proton sea, $\overline{d}\ensuremath{\ne}\overline{u}$. In addition to nuclear smearing corrections that are known to be important at large values of the nucleon's parton momentum fraction ${x}_{N}$, we also consider dynamical off-shell nucleon corrections associated with the modifications of the bound nucleon structure inside the deuteron, which we find to be significant at intermediate and large ${x}_{N}$ values. We also provide estimates of the nuclear corrections at kinematics corresponding to existing and planned Drell-Yan experiments at Fermilab and J-PARC which aim to determine the $\overline{d}/\overline{u}$ ratio for $x\ensuremath{\lesssim}0.6$.

Source: Physical review. D. Particles, fields, gravitation, and cosmology/Physical review. D. Particles and fields

DOI: 10.1103/physrevd.90.014010

Authors: P. J. Ehlers, A. Accardi, L. T. Brady, W. Melnitchouk

Institutions: Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility, University of Minnesota Morris, Hampton University

Language: English

Topic: Quantum Chromodynamics and Particle Interactions

Subfield: Nuclear and High Energy Physics

Field: Physics and Astronomy

Domain: Physical Sciences

Open Access status: green

Funder: U.S. Department of Energy

Awards: G2263355576, LARGE-X PARTONS FROM JLAB TO THE LHC