What can Drell-Yan data tell us about the EMC effect and nucleon parton distributions?

We show that knowledge of thex ₁ andx ₂ dependence of the ratio of Drell-Yan cross-sections measured on heavy nuclei and deuterium can give us information about the origin of the EMC effect. Conversely, we show that an understanding of the EMC effect, together with (non-ratio) Drell-Yan data, can provide us with a way of discriminating between candidates for nucleon parton distributions.     

A possible determination of the quark radiation length in cold nuclear matter

We calculate the differential Drell-Yan production cross section in proton-nucleus collisions by including both next-to-leading order perturbative effects and effects of the nuclear medium. We demonstrate that dilepton production in fixed target experiments is an excellent tool to study initial-state parton energy loss in large nuclei and to accurately determine the stopping power of cold nuclear matter. We provide theoretical predictions for the attenuation of the Drell-Yan cross section at large values of Feynman xF and show that for low proton beam energies experimental measurements at Fermilab?s E906 can clearly distinguish between nuclear shadowing and energy loss effects. If confirmed by data, our results may help determine the quark radiation length in cold nuclear matter X₀∼¹⁰−13 m.     

Pion content of the nucleon as seen in the NA51 Drell-Yan experiment

In a recent CERN Drell-Yan experiment the NA51 group found a strong asymmetry of ?u and ¯d densities in the proton atx ≌ 0.18. We interpret this result as a confirmation of the pion-induced sea in the nucleon.     

Global QCD analysis of parton structure of the nucleon: CTEQ5 parton distributions

An up-to-date global QCD analysis of high energy lepton-hadron and hadron-hadron interactions is performed to better determine the gluon and quark parton distributions in the nucleon. Improved experimental data on inclusive jet production, in conjunction with precise deep inelastic scattering data, place good constraints on the gluon over a wide range of x; while new data on asymmetries in Drell-Yan processes contribute to better determine the d/u ratio. Comparisons with results of other recent global analyses are made, and the differences are described. Open issues and the general problem of determining the uncertainties of parton distributions are discussed. Received: 7 April 1999 / Published online: 21 December 1999     

p-A Drell-Yan Process in the Target Rest Frame

At high energies, Drell-Yan process can be viewed in the target rest frame as bremsstrahlung of massive photons, rather than parton annihilation. In this paper, the ratio of the p-A Drell-Yan cross section per nucleon for an 800 GeV proton beam incident on Fe, W, and Be targets are calculated by means of the color dipole approach in the target rest system. It is shown that our calculations can quite well fit the Fermilab E866 experimental data with considering the nuclear shadowing effect in p-A Drell-Yan process and without the energy loss effect in it.     

Production characteristics of charmed particles in neutrino interactions

Using a hybrid emulsion spectrometer installed in the Fermilab wide-band neutrino beam, we located a total of 3855 neutrino interactions in the fiducial volume of our target. For 122 charmed-particle decays found in these interactions, we present distributions of x,y, charm-muon angular projection, Feynman-X, and the fragmentation Z. We find that the number of strange quarks in the nucleon sea is 4.2±2.1±2.6% of the number of down quarks.     

Light flavor asymmetry of nucleon sea

The light flavor antiquark distributions of the nucleon sea are calculated in the effective chiral quark model and compared with experimental results. The contributions of the flavor-symmetric sea-quark distributions and the nuclear EMC effect are taken into account to obtain the ratio of Drell–Yan cross sections σ ^pD/2σ ^pp, which can match well with the results measured in the FermiLab E866/NuSea experiment. The calculated results also match the [`(d)](x)-[`(u)](x)\bar{d}(x)-\bar{u}(x) measured in different experiments, but unmatch the behavior of [`(d)](x)/[`(u)](x)\bar{d}(x)/\bar{u}(x) derived indirectly from the measurable quantity σ ^pD/2σ ^pp by the FermiLab E866/NuSea Collaboration at large x. We suggest to measure again [`(d)](x)/[`(u)](x)\bar{d}(x)/\bar{u}(x) at large x from precision experiments with careful treatment of the experimental data. We also propose an alternative procedure for experimental data treatment.     

Probing nucleon structure on the lattice

The QCDSF/UKQCD Collaboration has an ongoing program to calculate nucleon matrix elements with two flavours of dynamical O(a) improved Wilson fermions. Here we present recent results on the electromagnetic form factors, the quark momentum fraction 〈x〉 and the first three moments of the nucleon's spin-averaged and spin-dependent generalised parton distributions, including preliminary results with pion masses as low as 320MeV.     

The EMC effect — status and perspectives

Recent experimental results on the EMC effect are presented. The ratios of structure functions for nuclei and deuterium measured by the two muon experiments at CERN show a clear enhancement of a few percent forx<0.25. Atx below 0.05 substantial shadowing with littleQ ² dependence has been observed by a dedicated low angle experiment of the EMC. No significant nuclear mass dependence ofR=αL/αT has been seen in the SLAC experiment E 140. There are several indications that theQ ² evolution of nuclear structure functions deviates from the expectations of perturbative QCD and that the gluon distribution in nuclei is harder than in free nucleons. This is possibly caused by nucleon-nucleon correlations on the quark-gluon level. Many aspects of the EMC effect are presently being investigated by the high energy muon experiment of the NMC collaboration at CERN and a Drell-Yan experiment at FNAL. First results can be expected soon. They will help to develop a better understanding of nuclear effects in quark and gluon distributions.     

Nuclear parton distribution functions and energy-loss effect in the Drell-Yan reaction off nuclei

The energy-loss effect in nuclear matter is another nuclear effect apart from the nuclear effects on the parton distribution as in deep inelastic scattering process. The quark energy loss can be measured best by the nuclear dependence of the high energy nuclear Drell-Yan process. By means of two typical kinds of quark energy-loss parametrization and the different sets of nuclear parton distribution functions, we present an analysis of the E866 experiments on the nuclear dependence of Drell-Yan lepton pair production resulting from the bombardment of Be, Fe and W targets by 800 GeV protons at Fermilab. It is found that the quark energy loss in cold nuclei is strongly dependent on the used nuclear parton distribution functions. The further prospects of using relatively low energy protons incident on nuclear targets are presented by combining the quark energy-loss rate determined from a fit to the E866 nuclear-dependent ratios versus x ₁, with the nuclear parton distribution functions given from lA deep inelastic scattering (DIS) data. The experimental study of the relatively low energy nuclear Drell-Yan process can give valuable insight in the energy loss of the fast quark propagating through cold nuclei and help to pin down nuclear parton distribution functions.Received: 8 September 2004, Revised: 18 October 2004, Published online: 11 January 2005PACS: 24.85. + p, 13.85.Qk, 25.40.-h, 25.75.Nq     

Low-mass Drell-Yan pairs at RHIC and LHC

We summarize the calculation of Drell-Yan transverse-momentum distributions using QCD perturbation theory. In particular, the transversemomentum spectrum of low-mass Drell-Yan pairs is calculated with all-order resummation. We demonstrate that the transverse-momentum distribution of low-mass Drell-Yan pairs is an advantageous source of constraints on the gluon distribution and its nuclear dependence. We argue that low-mass Drell-Yan pairs in the forward region provide a good and clean probe of small-x gluons at RHIC and LHC.     

On theQ 2-extrapolations of AF-corrected Drell-Yan processes

TheQ ²-dependence of the integrated Drell-Yan cross sections with asymptotic freedom (AF) corrections is investigated forQ ²≦ 10⁷ GeV². Existing AF-parametrizations lead to widely differing predictions. Lowest order QCD indicates a strong dependence on thex-behaviour of the input momentum distributions (atQ ²=Q ₀ ² ) which for sea quarks and gluons are guesses. Consequently, AF-corrected Drell-Yan extrapolations toW-energies and beyond involve considerable uncertainties.     

Chiral-odd TMDs in Drell-Yan processes

We calculate the Boer-Mulders function of the pion by applying the MIT bag model, and compare the result with that from the spectator model. We then study the azimuthal asymmetries contributed by the chiral-odd transverse momentum distributions in pion-nucleon Drell-Yan process at COMPASS and in proton-proton Drell-Yan process at RHIC, J-PARC, E906 and NICA.     

Chiral Invariant Phase Space model

The CHIPS (CHiral Invariant Phase Space) model is used for approximation of the Drell-Yan process in hadron-nucleon interactions. It is proved that the Drell-Yan cross-section at low p _T ² is a function of only x₁ and x₂ and does not evolve as a function of the squared mass of the lepton pair M². The CHIPS model predicts that the Drell-Yan structure functions evolve as a function of p _T ² . This p _T ² evolution can be measured in experiments at RHIC and LHC.     

Results from the forward G0 experiment

The G0 experiment is dedicated to the determination of the strange quark contribution to the electric and magnetic nucleon form factors for a large range of momentum transfers between 0.1 to 1(GeV/c)² . This information is provided by the asymmetries of cross-sections measured with longitudinally polarized electrons in elastic electron-proton scattering and quasi-elastic electron-deuteron scattering. A set of measurements at two different Q² will allow the complete separation of the electric and magnetic weak, as well as axial nucleon form factors. This report summarizes the physics case, gives details about the dedicated set-up used, and shows the results of the combination of the strange quark contribution in the electric and magnetic form factors of the protons. The experiment was performed at the Jefferson Laboratory, during years 2003 and 2004, and will be completed after backward-angle measurements in 2006, 2007.     

Mesonic and binding contributions to the nuclear Drell-Yan process

We have evaluated the Drell-Yan cross section in nuclei paying special attention to the meson cloud contribution from pions and ϱ-mesons, for which an accurate calculation using the meson nuclear spectral functions is used. Similarly, the nucleonic contribution is evaluated in terms of a relativistic nucleon spectral function. Fair agreement with experiment is found for different nuclei and the results show a sizeable contribution from the renormalized meson cloud. In order to reproduce the experiment a novel element is introduced, consisting of a gradual energy loss of the incoming proton in its pass through the nucleus which produces a strong A dependence at x₁ large.     

Semi-inclusive deep inelastic scattering at small-x

We study the semi-inclusive hadron production in deep inelastic scattering at small-x. A transverse-momentum-dependent factorization is found consistent with the results calculated in the small-x approaches, such as the color-dipole framework and the color glass condensate, in the appropriate kinematic region at the lowest order. The transverse-momentum-dependent quark distribution can be studied in this process as a probe for the small-x saturation physics. Especially, the ratio of quark distributions as a function of transverse momentum at different x   demonstrates strong dependence on the saturation scale. The Q²$Q^2$ dependence of the same ratio is also studied by applying the Collins–Soper–Sterman resummation method.