Pion-induced Drell-Yan processes and the flavor-dependent EMC effect

TL;DR

This paper explores how pion-induced Drell-Yan processes can be used to investigate the flavor dependence of the EMC effect, offering a new experimental approach to understand quark modifications in nuclei.

Contribution

It proposes using pion-induced Drell-Yan experiments to probe the flavor dependence of the EMC effect and compares existing data with a recent flavor-dependent nuclear quark distribution model.

Findings

Existing data suggest a flavor dependence of the EMC effect.

Pion-induced Drell-Yan experiments can access new aspects of the EMC effect.

Predictions for future experiments are provided.

Abstract

Pion-induced Drell-Yan processes are proposed as a potential tool to measure the flavor dependence of the EMC effect, that is, the flavor-dependent modification of quark distributions in the nuclear medium. Existing pionic Drell-Yan data are compared with calculations using a recent model for nuclear quark distributions that incorporates flavor-dependent nuclear effects. While no firm conclusions can yet be drawn, we demonstrate that existing Drell-Yan data seem to imply a flavor dependence of the EMC effect. We highlight how pion-induced Drell-Yan experiments on nuclear targets can access important new aspects of the EMC effect, not probed in deep inelastic scattering, and will therefore provide very stringent constrains for models of nuclear quark distributions. Predictions for possible future pion-induced Drell-Yan experiments are also presented.