Measurement of the proton structure parameters in the forward-backward charge asymmetry

TL;DR

This paper extracts proton structure parameters from forward-backward asymmetry measurements in proton-proton and proton-antiproton collisions, providing new standalone observables to improve understanding of proton parton distributions.

Contribution

It is the first to decouple and measure the proton structure parameters from $A_{FB}$ spectra as independent observables, enhancing constraints in global QCD analyses of PDFs.

Findings

Down quark contribution may be higher than current PDF predictions.

First measurement of proton structure parameters from $A_{FB}$ in collider data.

Results suggest potential revisions to proton parton distribution models.

Abstract

The forward-backward asymmetry ($A_{FB}$) in the Drell-Yan process $pp/p\bar p \to Z/\gamma^* \to \ell^+\ell^-$ is sensitive to the proton structure information. Such information has been factorized into well-defined proton structure parameters which can be regarded as experimental observables. In this paper, we extract the structure parameters from the $A_{FB}$ distributions reported by the CMS collaboration in $pp$ collisions at $\sqrt{s} = 8$ TeV, and by the D0 collaboration in $p\bar p$ collisions at $\sqrt{s} = 1.96$ TeV. It is the first time that the unique parton information in the $A_{FB}$ spectrum can be decoupled from the electroweak calculation and measured as standalone observables, which can be used as new data constraints in the global quantum chromodynamics analysis of the parton distribution functions (PDFs). Although the parton information in the $pp$ and $p\bar p$ collisions are different, and the precisions of the measured structure parameters are statistically limited, the results from both the hadron colliders indicate that the down quark contribution might be higher than the theoretical predictions with the current PDFs at the relevant momentum fraction range.