Global analysis of nuclear parton distribution functions

TL;DR

This paper reviews the theoretical and experimental progress in determining nuclear parton distribution functions, highlighting recent advances from collider data, especially from proton-lead collisions at the LHC, which have significantly improved understanding.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive overview of the methods, data, and current status of nuclear PDFs, emphasizing the impact of recent collider measurements on global analyses.

Findings

Enhanced constraints on nuclear PDFs from LHC proton-lead data

Significant progress in understanding shadowing and antishadowing effects

Improved flavor separation and higher-twist effect analysis

Abstract

We review the theoretical foundations, methodological approaches and current status of the determination of nuclear parton distribution functions (PDFs). A large variety of measurements in fixed-target and collider experiments provide increasingly precise constraints on various aspects of nuclear PDFs, including shadowing, antishadowing, the EMC effect, Fermi motion, flavour separation, deuteron binding, target-mass and other higher-twist effects. We give particular emphasis to measurements carried out in proton-lead collisions at the Large Hadron Collider, which have revolutionised the global analysis during the past decade. These measurements include electroweak boson, isolated photon, single inclusive hadron, jet, and heavy-flavour observables.