# Probing the flavor dependence of proton's light-quark sea in the   SeaQuest experiment

**Authors:** Jason Dove

arXiv: 1908.00040 · 2019-08-02

## TL;DR

The SeaQuest experiment investigates the flavor asymmetry of the proton's light-quark sea at high Bjorken-x, providing more precise measurements of the $ar{d}/ar{u}$ ratio to understand proton structure.

## Contribution

This work reports on the data collection and analysis status of SeaQuest, introducing two methods for extracting Drell-Yan cross section ratios at high x and comparing them with theoretical PDFs.

## Key findings

- Data collection completed for $0.1 \\leq x \\leq 0.45$
- Two methods for cross section ratio extraction discussed
- Ratios compared with various PDF calculations

## Abstract

Surprisingly large flavor asymmetry of the light-quark sea in the proton was reported in deep-inelastic scattering and Drell-Yan experiments. The Bjorken-$x$ dependence of the $\bar{d}/\bar{u}$ ratio extracted from the Fermilab E866 experiment also revealed an intriguing drop at the highest values of $x$. The Fermilab E906/SeaQuest experiment was designed to measure $\bar{d}/\bar{u}$ with improved accuracy at high Bjorken-$x$. By detecting high-mass dimuon events produced in the interaction of 120 GeV proton beam with liquid hydrogen (LH$_2$) and deuterium (LD$_2$) targets, the SeaQuest experiment probes the $\bar{d}/\bar{u}$ ratio up to $x \approx 0.45$. Data collection has been completed and we report the status of data analysis for SeaQuest. Two different methods for extracting the LD$_2$/LH$_2$ Drell-Yan cross section ratios for $0.1\leq x\leq 0.45$ are discussed. These ratios are compared with calculations using various PDFs.

## Full text

_Full body text omitted from this summary view._ Fetch the complete paper as Markdown: https://tomesphere.com/paper/1908.00040/full.md

## Figures

7 figures with captions in the complete paper: https://tomesphere.com/paper/1908.00040/full.md

## References

14 references — full list in the complete paper: https://tomesphere.com/paper/1908.00040/full.md

---
Source: https://tomesphere.com/paper/1908.00040