PDF analysis of Z boson polarisation data from LHC and constraints on Higgs boson production cross section

TL;DR

This paper investigates how projected measurements of Z-boson polarization in Drell-Yan processes can refine parton distribution functions, especially the gluon PDF, thereby reducing uncertainties in Higgs boson production predictions at the LHC.

Contribution

It introduces a method to incorporate projected Z-boson polarization data into PDF fits, improving constraints on the gluon distribution and Higgs cross section estimates.

Findings

Polarization data significantly constrains the gluon PDF.

Reduced systematic uncertainties in Higgs production cross section.

Projected measurements enhance PDF profiling accuracy.

Abstract

We study the effect on the parton distribution functions (PDFs) from the inclusion of projected measurements in the Drell-Yan (DY) di-lepton production neutral channel of the angular coefficient associated to the $Z$-boson longitudinal polarisation. The pseudodata, generated assuming two luminosity scenarios, is employed for the profiling of existing PDF sets using the open-source platform xFitter. We find the observable particularly relevant in constraining the gluon PDF, which in turn translates into a reduction of the systematic uncertainties of the Standard Model (SM) Higgs boson production cross section.