PDFs for nuclear targets

TL;DR

This paper presents two next-to-leading order analyses of nuclear parton distribution functions using different experimental data sets, highlighting nuclear correction factors and their implications for collider experiments involving nuclei.

Contribution

It introduces two NPDF analyses based on charged-lepton and neutrino DIS data, comparing nuclear correction factors and advancing understanding of nuclear effects in PDFs.

Findings

Comparison of nuclear correction factors from different data sets

Differences between charged-lepton and neutrino DIS results

Enhanced understanding of nuclear effects in PDFs

Abstract

Understanding nuclear effects in parton distribution functions (PDF) is an essential component needed to determine the strange and anti-strange quark contributions in the proton. In addition Nuclear Parton Distribution Functions (NPDF) are critically important for any collider experiment with nuclei (e.g. RHIC, ALICE). Here two next-to-leading order chi^2-analyses of NPDF are presented. The first uses neutral current charged-lepton Deeply Inelastic Scattering (DIS) and Drell-Yan data for several nuclear targets and the second uses neutrino-nucleon DIS data. We compare the nuclear corrections factors (F_2^Fe/F_2^D) for the charged-lepton data with other results from the literature. In particular, we compare and contrast fits based upon the charged-lepton DIS data with those using neutrino-nucleon DIS data.