In this talk, we introduce our recently completed next-to-leading order (NLO) global analysis of the nuclear parton distribution functions (nPDFs) called EPS09 - a higher order successor to the well-known leading-order (LO) analysis EKS98 and also to
our previous LO work EPS08. As an extension to similar global analyses carried out by other groups, we complement the data from deep inelastic $l+A$ scattering and Drell-Yan dilepton measurements in p+$A$ collisions by inclusive midrapidity pion production data from d+Au collisions at RHIC, which results in better constrained gluon distributions than before. The most important new ingredient, however, is the detailed error analysis, which employs the Hessian method and which allows us to map out the parameter-space vicinity of the best-fit to a collection of nPDF error sets. These error sets provide the end-user a way to compute how the PDF-uncertainties will propagate into the cross sections of his/her interest. The EPS09 package to be released soon, will contain both the NLO and LO results for the best fits and the uncertainty sets.
We present a next-to-leading order (NLO) global DGLAP analysis of nuclear parton distribution functions (nPDFs) and their uncertainties. Carrying out an NLO nPDF analysis for the first time with three different types of experimental input -- deep ine
lastic $ell$+A scattering, Drell-Yan dilepton production in p+$A$ collisions, and inclusive pion production in d+Au and p+p collisions at RHIC -- we find that these data can well be described in a conventional collinear factorization framework. Although the pion production has not been traditionally included in the global analyses, we find that the shape of the nuclear modification factor $R_{rm dAu}$ of the pion $p_T$-spectrum at midrapidity retains sensitivity to the gluon distributions, providing evidence for shadowing and EMC-effect in the nuclear gluons. We use the Hessian method to quantify the nPDF uncertainties which originate from the uncertainties in the data. In this method the sensitivity of $chi^2$ to the variations of the fitting parameters is mapped out to orthogonal error sets which provide a user-friendly way to calculate how the nPDF uncertainties propagate to any factorizable nuclear cross-section. The obtained NLO and LO nPDFs and the corresponding error sets are collected in our new release called {ttfamily EPS09}. These results should find applications in precision analyses of the signatures and properties of QCD matter at the LHC and RHIC.
In this talk, we shortly report results from our recent global DGLAP analysis of nuclear parton distributions. This is an extension of our former EKS98-analysis improved with an automated $chi^2$ minimization procedure and uncertainty estimates. Alth
ough our new analysis show no significant deviation from EKS98, a sign of a significantly stronger gluon shadowing could be seen in the RHIC BRAHMS data.
