A New Method for Reducing PDF Uncertainties in the High-Mass Drell-Yan Spectrum

TL;DR

This paper introduces a new method leveraging the ePump tool to strategically select kinematic variables, significantly reducing PDF uncertainties in high-mass Drell-Yan spectrum measurements at the LHC, thereby improving BSM physics searches.

Contribution

It demonstrates that careful selection of measurable quantities with ePump can substantially lower PDF uncertainties in high-mass Drell-Yan analyses.

Findings

PDF uncertainties can be reduced by factors using the new method.

Future LHC datasets will enable more precise Standard Model measurements.

The approach enhances sensitivity to Beyond the Standard Model physics.

Abstract

Uncertainties in the parametrization of Parton Distribution Functions (PDFs) are becoming a serious limiting systematic uncertainty in Large Hadron Collider (LHC) searches for Beyond the Standard Model physics. This is especially true for measurements at high scales induced by quark and anti-quark collisions, where Drell-Yan continuum backgrounds are dominant. Tools are recently available which enable exploration of PDF fitting strategies and emulate the effects of new data in a future global fit. ePump is such a tool and it is shown that judicious selection of measurable kinematical quantities can reduce the assigned systematic PDF uncertainties by significant factors. This will be made possible by the huge statistical precision of future LHC Standard Model datasets.