# Asymmetric heavy-quark hadroproduction at LHCb: Predictions and applications

## TL;DR

This paper provides detailed predictions for asymmetric heavy-quark production at LHCb, exploring how measurements can probe Z boson couplings and constrain new physics models with gauge bosons around 100 GeV.

## Contribution

It offers the first comprehensive NLO predictions for heavy-quark asymmetries at LHCb, including a Fortran code and analytic formulas for experimental and theoretical analyses.

## Key findings

- Predictions include all relevant QCD and electroweak contributions at NLO.
- Asymmetry measurements can probe Z-quark couplings with competitive precision.
- Constraints on new gauge bosons with ~100 GeV mass are discussed.

## Abstract

We present a phenomenological analysis of asymmetric bottom- and charm-quark production within the LHCb acceptance relevant for $pp$ collisions at $\sqrt{s} = 13 \, {\rm TeV}$. Predictions are provided for both anti-$k_t$ bottom- and charm-jet pairs, which are kept differentially with respect to the invariant mass of the jet pair. It is quantified how data in this region can provide sensitivity to the couplings of the $Z$ boson to heavy quarks, and we investigate what precision is needed to compete with LEP. We also discuss how asymmetry and rate measurements can provide constraints on a particular class of new-physics models, which contains gauge bosons with small/moderate couplings to light/heavy quarks and masses of the order of $100 \, {\rm GeV}$. Predictions are obtained including all relevant QCD and QED/weak contributions up to next-to-leading order, which have been implemented in a Fortran code which allows to directly compute the asymmetric cross sections. We provide all relevant analytic formulas for our computations.