Study of W and Z Boson Production in Proton-Lead Collisions at the LHC with KP Nuclear Parton Distributions

TL;DR

This paper investigates W and Z boson production in proton-lead collisions at the LHC using KP nuclear parton distributions, showing excellent agreement with experimental data and exploring nuclear effects on parton densities.

Contribution

It applies the KP nuclear parton distribution model to vector boson production in p+Pb collisions, providing detailed comparisons with LHC data and analyzing nuclear modification sensitivities.

Findings

KP model predictions match LHC W/Z data well

Nuclear effects significantly influence boson production distributions

Current data can constrain nuclear parton distribution modifications

Abstract

We present a detailed study of the (pseudo)rapidity distributions of massive vector bosons produced in p+p and p+Pb collisions at the LHC within the next-to-leading order approximation in perturbative quantum chromodynamics. In particular, we discuss the impact of different cold nuclear matter effects on this process using the nuclear parton distributions calculated from the microscopic model developed by Kulagin and Petti (KP). This model was successfully applied to study nuclear effects in the deep-inelastic scattering and the Drell-Yan reactions off various (fixed) target nuclei. Results are compared with the recent CMS and ATLAS p+Pb data with \sqrt{s}=5.02 TeV per two colliding nucleons. We found an excellent agreement between the predictions of the KP model and the recent LHC data on W+- and Z0 production in p+Pb collisions, including the differential cross sections, the forward-backward asymmetries, and W charge asymmetry. We also discuss the sensitivity of the current and future LHC data to the underlying mechanisms responsible for the nuclear modifications of parton density functions.