0000000000643856
AUTHOR
A. Kusina
Strange quark parton distribution functions and implications for Drell-Yan boson production at the LHC
Global analyses of parton distribution functions (PDFs) have provided incisive constraints on the up and down quark components of the proton, but constraining the other flavor degrees of freedom is more challenging. Higher-order theory predictions and new data sets have contributed to recent improvements. Despite these efforts, the strange quark parton distribution function has a sizable uncertainty, particularly in the small $x$ region. We examine the constraints from experiment and theory, and investigate the impact of this uncertainty on LHC observables. In particular, we study $W/Z$ production to see how the $s$ quark uncertainty propagates to these observables, and examine the extent t…
Global analysis of nuclear PDFs with LHC vector boson, single inclusive hadron and heavy quark data
We discuss the two most recent global analyses of nuclear parton distribution functions within the nCTEQ approach. LHC data on W/Z-boson, single-inclusive hadron and heavy quark/quarkonium production are shown to not only significantly reduce the gluon uncertainty down to x≥10−5, but to also influence the strange quark density. The latter is further constrained by neutrino deep-inelastic scattering and charm dimuon production data, whose consistency with neutral-current experiments is also re-evaluated. peerReviewed