$W$ + charm associated hadroproduction: relevance of Shower Monte Carlo effects

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that incorporating Shower Monte Carlo effects in NLO QCD predictions for W + charm hadroproduction is essential for accurate comparison with experimental data and for constraining the strange quark content of the proton.

Contribution

It introduces NLO QCD predictions matched with parton shower for W + charm production, emphasizing the importance of shower effects for PDF extraction.

Findings

Including shower, hadronization, and multiple interactions improves data agreement.

Shower effects are crucial for unbiased strange quark PDF determination.

Predictions align with ATLAS and CMS measurements.

Abstract

Data on $W + D$-meson and $W + c$-jet hadroproduction have recently started to be included in at least some of the parton distribution function fits, mainly because of their potential to constrain the strange quark content of the proton. In this contribution we present predictions for $W + D$-meson and $W + c$-jet production with NLO QCD accuracy matched to parton shower. We show how including the latter effects, as well as hadronization, beam remnant and multiple parton interaction effects present in Shower Monte Carlo codes, is fundamental to provide consistent comparisons with the current experimental data by the ATLAS and CMS collaborations, as required for non-biased extractions of the strange and antistrange quark PDFs.