We investigate the impact of parton distribution functions (PDFs) uncertainties on W/Z production at the LHC, concentrating on the strange quark PDF. Additionally we examine the extent to which precise measurements at the LHC can provide additional information on the proton flavor structure.
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 PDF 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 to which precise measurements at the LHC can provide additional information on the proton flavor structure.
This paper summarises results on W and Z plus jet production in pp collisions at $sqrt{s} = 7$ TeV at the CERN Large Hadron Collider, from both the ATLAS and CMS experiments. Based on the 2010 and 2011 datasets, measurements have been made of numerous cross sections providing excellent tests of the latest predictions from QCD calculations and event generators.
We calculate and analyze Z and W production in association with quark-antiquark pair in k_T-factorization. Numerical calculations are performed using the Monte Carlo generator CASCADE for proton proton collisions at LHC energy. We compare total and differential cross sections calculated in k_T-factorization approach with total differential cross sections obtained in LO and NLO calculations in collinear factorization approach. We provide strong evidence that some of the effects of the NLO and even higher order collinear calculation are already included in the LO k_T-factorization calculation.
The determination of the $W$-boson mass through an analysis of the decay charged-lepton transverse momentum distribution has a sizable uncertainty due to the imperfect knowledge of the relevant parton distribution functions (PDFs). In this paper, a quantitative assessment of the $W$-boson mass uncertainty at the LHC resulting from the PDF uncertainty is examined. We use the CT14 NNLO PDFs with a NNLL + NNLO calculation (ResBos) to simulate the $W$-boson production and decay kinematics. The uncertainty of the $W$-boson mass determination is then determined as a function of the boson and lepton kinematics. For $W^{+}$ production using $P_{T}^{W} < 15$ GeV and $35 < P_{T}^{l}$ (GeV) $< 45$, PDF uncertainties (at the 68% CL) of $^{+16.0}_{-17.5}$ MeV, $^{+13.9}_{-14.8}$ MeV, and $^{+12.2}_{-19.2}$ MeV, are determined at 7 TeV, 8 TeV and 13 TeV respectively. The uncertainties of $W^{-}$ for the same cuts are found to be $^{+15.9}_{-15.6}$ MeV, $^{+15.0}_{-12.7}$ MeV and $^{+14.8}_{-15.3}$ MeV, at 7 TeV, 8 TeV and 13 TeV respectively.
We present an improved determination of the up- and down-quark distributions in the proton using recent data on charged lepton asymmetries from $W^pm$ gauge-boson production at the LHC and Tevatron. The analysis is performed in the framework of a global fit of parton distribution functions. The fit results are consistent with a non-zero iso-spin asymmetry of the sea, $x(bar d - bar u)$, at small values of Bjorken $xsim 10^{-4}$ indicating a delayed onset of the Regge asymptotics of a vanishing $(bar d - bar u)$-asymmetry at small-$x$. We compare with up- and down-quark distributions available in the literature and provide accurate predictions for the production of single top-quarks at the LHC, a process which can serve as a standard candle for the light quark flavor content of the proton.