Diffractive production of electroweak vector bosons at the LHC

TL;DR

This paper investigates diffractive electroweak vector boson production at the LHC, proposing that the W boson production asymmetry can test the flavor symmetry of pomeron parton distributions and refine proton PDFs.

Contribution

It introduces the use of single diffractive W boson production asymmetry as a novel observable to test pomeron flavor symmetry and constrain proton parton distribution functions.

Findings

W boson production asymmetry is sensitive to pomeron flavor symmetry.

The observable can help refine proton parton distribution functions.

Potential to improve understanding of diffractive processes at the LHC.

Abstract

We analyse diffractive electroweak vector boson production in hadronic collisions and show that the single diffractive W boson production asymmetry in rapidity is a particularly good observable at the LHC to test the concept of the flavour symmetric pomeron parton distributions. It may also provide an additional constraint for the parton distribution functions in the proton.