EPS09 - Global NLO analysis of nuclear PDFs

TL;DR

This paper introduces EPS09, a comprehensive NLO analysis of nuclear PDFs that incorporates diverse experimental data and provides the first Hessian error sets for nuclear gluon densities.

Contribution

It extends previous NLO nuclear PDF analyses by including RHIC pion data and introduces the first Hessian error sets for nuclear PDFs.

Findings

Reduced uncertainty in nuclear gluon densities.

Inclusion of RHIC pion data improves gluon distribution constraints.

First Hessian error sets for nuclear PDFs are provided.

Abstract

In this talk, we present our recent work on next-to-leading order (NLO) nuclear parton distribution functions (nPDFs), which we call EPS09. As an extension to earlier NLO analyses, we complement the deep inelastic scattering and Drell-Yan dilepton data by inclusive midrapidity pion production measurements from RHIC to reduce the otherwize large freedom of the nuclear gluon densities. In addition, our Hessian-type error analysis leading to a collection of nPDF error sets, is the first of its kind among the nPDF analyses.