Determination of Proton Parton Distribution Functions using ATLAS Data

TL;DR

This paper presents new determinations of proton parton distribution functions using ATLAS data from LHC and HERA, focusing on the strange quark distribution and its evolution, with implications for understanding proton structure.

Contribution

It introduces a comprehensive analysis combining LHC and HERA data to improve the determination of proton PDFs, especially the strange sea quark distribution.

Findings

Enhanced precision in strange quark distribution at various energy scales

Evidence for the evolution of the strange sea over time

Improved constraints on proton structure functions

Abstract

Using differential cross-section data of inclusive $W$ and $Z/\gamma^\ast$ boson production and of their production in association with jets, and differential cross-section data of top-quark pair production in the lepton + jets and dilepton channels in proton$-$proton collisions at the CERN Large Hadron Collider at center-of-mass energies of $\sqrt{s}=7$ and 8 TeV, together with deep inelastic scattering data from electron$-$proton collisions at the HERA collider, several determinations of parton distribution functions of the proton have been performed by the ATLAS experiment. The results are presented here. The emphasis is given to the determination of the strange sea quark distribution and its evolution over time.