Weak interaction corrections to muon pair production via the photon fusion at the LHC

TL;DR

This paper provides analytical formulas for weak interaction corrections, specifically Z boson exchange, to muon pair production via photon fusion at the LHC, showing significant effects at high invariant masses.

Contribution

It introduces explicit analytical formulas for Z boson exchange corrections to muon pair production in proton-proton collisions at the LHC.

Findings

Correction magnitude reaches about 20% at high invariant masses

Analytical formulas enable precise calculations of weak interaction effects

Highlights importance of weak corrections in high-energy muon pair production

Abstract

Analytical formulas describing the correction due to the $Z$ boson exchange to the cross section of the reaction $pp\rightarrow p\mu^+\mu^- X$ are presented. When the invariant mass of the produced muon pair $W\gtrsim 150~\text{GeV}$ and its total transverse momentum is large, the correction is of the order of 20%.