Nuclear medium effects in Drell-Yan process

TL;DR

This paper investigates nuclear medium effects on the Drell-Yan process by incorporating nuclear structure, meson contributions, shadowing, and beam energy loss, comparing theoretical predictions with experimental data.

Contribution

It introduces a comprehensive microscopic nuclear model that includes Fermi motion, binding, correlations, meson effects, shadowing, and energy loss for Drell-Yan processes.

Findings

The model successfully explains experimental data from E772 and E886.

Predictions are made for the upcoming E906 Sea Quest experiment.

Nuclear medium effects significantly influence Drell-Yan cross sections.

Abstract

We study the nuclear medium effects in Drell-Yan process using quark parton distribution functions calculated in a microscopic nuclear model which takes into account the effects of Fermi motion, nuclear binding and nucleon correlations through a relativistic nucleon spectral function. The contributions of $\pi$ and $\rho$ mesons as well as shadowing effects are also included. The beam energy loss is calculated using a phenomenological approach. The present theoretical results are compared with the experimental results of E772 and E886 experiments. These results are applicable to the forthcoming experimental analysis of E906 Sea Quest experiment at Fermi Lab.