Measurement of Rapidity Distribution for High Mass Drell-Yan ee Pairs at CDF

TL;DR

This paper presents the first measurement of the rapidity distribution of high-mass Drell-Yan electron pairs in proton-antiproton collisions, comparing results with quantum chromodynamics predictions.

Contribution

It provides the first rapidity distribution measurement over nearly the entire kinematic range for high-mass Drell-Yan pairs at Fermilab.

Findings

Total cross section in Z-boson region: 252 ± 11 pb

Measured rapidity distribution agrees with QCD calculations

Data covers a wide rapidity range from 66 to above 116 GeV/c^2

Abstract

We report on the first measurement of the rapidity distribution dsigma/dy over nearly the entire kinematic region of rapidity for e^+e^- pairs in the Z-boson region of 66<M_{ee}<116 GeV/c^2 and at higher mass M_{ee}>116 GeV/c^2. The data sample consists of 108 pb^{-1} of ppbar collisions at \sqrt{s}=1.8 TeV taken by the Collider Detector at Fermilab during 1992--1995. The total cross section in the $Z$-boson region is measured to be 252 +- 11 pb. The measured total cross section and d\sigma/dy are compared with quantum chromodynamics calculations in leading and higher orders.