Strange Quark PDFs and Implications for Drell-Yan Boson Production at the LHC

TL;DR

This paper investigates the uncertainties in strange quark parton distribution functions (PDFs) and their impact on W/Z boson production at the LHC, aiming to improve understanding of proton flavor structure through experimental and theoretical analysis.

Contribution

It analyzes the current constraints on strange quark PDFs and explores how LHC measurements can reduce uncertainties in proton flavor composition.

Findings

Strange quark PDFs have significant uncertainties at small x.

LHC W/Z production measurements can help constrain strange quark distributions.

Uncertainty in s-quark PDFs affects predictions of W/Z boson production rates.

Abstract

Global analyses of Parton Distribution Functions (PDFs) have provided incisive constraints on the up and down quark components of the proton, but constraining the other flavor degrees of freedom is more challenging. Higher-order theory predictions and new data sets have contributed to recent improvements. Despite these efforts, the strange quark PDF has a sizable uncertainty, particularly in the small x region. We examine the constraints from experiment and theory, and investigate the impact of this uncertainty on LHC observables. In particular, we study W/Z production to see how the s-quark uncertainty propagates to these observables, and examine the extent to which precise measurements at the LHC can provide additional information on the proton flavor structure.