Constraining PDFs from neutral current Drell-Yan measurements and effects of resummation in slepton pair production

TL;DR

This paper explores how precise measurements of the Forward-Backward Asymmetry at the LHC can constrain parton distribution functions, and assesses the impact of resummation techniques on slepton pair production predictions for BSM searches.

Contribution

It demonstrates the potential of AFB measurements to refine PDFs and incorporates threshold resummation in NLO+NLL calculations for slepton production, improving theoretical accuracy.

Findings

AFB measurements can effectively constrain quark PDFs.

Resummation reduces theoretical uncertainties in slepton cross sections.

Updated predictions aid BSM searches at LHC.

Abstract

The high statistics that will be collected during the LHC Run-II (and beyond) open the path to precision measurements at the TeV scale, where the PDFs will play a crucial role in BSM searches. In the di-lepton final state accurate measurements of the Forward-Backward Asymmetry (AFB) will be available, particularly in the invariant mass region around the Z peak. We show that this observable displays a statistical error which is competitive with that assigned to the existing PDF sets and which will rapidly become smaller than the latter as the integrated luminosity grows, thereby offering a means of constraining the (anti)quark PDFs over a sizeable $(x,Q^2)$ range. In the context of SUSY searches we consider the effects of employing threshold-improved PDFs in a consistent calculation at NLO+NLL of slepton pair production cross sections. The calculations featuring a consistent resummation procedure both at PDF and partonic matrix element level are accompanied by PDF and scale uncertainties, and they provide a reliable and updated theoretical estimation for experimental data analyses at the LHC Run-II.