Nuclear PDFs at the beginning of LHC Run 3

TL;DR

This paper reviews recent progress in determining nuclear parton distribution functions (nuclear PDFs) using LHC data, highlighting advances from Run 1 and 2 and discussing future prospects and challenges for Run 3.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive review of how LHC proton-lead collision data has improved nuclear PDF extractions and discusses upcoming opportunities and challenges.

Findings

Enhanced nuclear PDF constraints from LHC Run 1 and 2 data

Identification of key challenges for nuclear PDF analysis in Run 3

Discussion of future opportunities with new LHC data

Abstract

Nuclear parton distribution functions (nuclear PDFs), collinearly factorizable in perturbative QCD (pQCD), are currently extracted most reliably from global analyses of experimental data. Recently, the progress in this field has been driven mainly by the new data from LHC proton-lead collisions. I will review the progress in using data from LHC Run 1 and 2 and also hint at some opportunities and challenges that we face during LHC Run 3.