Narrow Results

The study presented in this paper shows that accounting for the relativistic structure of the deuteron allows to explain the ratio of the Drell-Yan pair production cross-sections at the low Bjorken x off the deuteron and the proton. Thus, the sea quark distributions in the nucleon should be studied with accounting for the effects of the relativistic structure of the deuteron. The suggested approach reduces theoretical uncertainty in extracting the ratio from the data and it is important for the clarification of the nature of the sea quark asymmetry in the nucleon.

We present predictions for the Z-boson p_t-spectrum at Tevatron within the framework of unintegrated distributions evolved according to evolution equations recently proposed by us. We discuss the dependence of the results on the choice of non-perturbative parameters, the coupling constant and the impact of soft gluon resummation.

The study of Drell–Yan (DY) processes involving the collision of an (un)polarised hadron beam on an (un)polarised proton target can result in a fundamental improvement of our knowledge on the transverse momentum dependent (TMDs) parton distribution functions (PDFs) of hadrons. The production mechanism of J/ψ and J/ψ - DY duality can also be addressed. One of the forthcoming polarised DY experiments (COMPASS (SPS, CERN)) is discussed in this context. The most important features of this project are briefly reviewed, as well as its sensitivity to the various transverse momentum dependent spin asymmetries.

Using data from collisions at collected by the CDF and DØ detectors, we present measurements of the Drell-Yan inclusive differential cross section and forward-backward charge asymmetry as a function of invariant mass. We compare these measurements with Standard Model predictions, and present searches for new physics that could appear as deviations from the Standard Model in the Drell-Yan differential cross section.

We study several azimuthal asymmetries in semiinclusive deep inelastic scattering and in Drell–Yan, interpreting them within the formalism of the quark correlator, with a particular reference to T-odd functions. The correlator contains an undetermined energy scale, which we fix on the basis of a simple and rather general argument. We find a different value than the one assumed in previous treatments of T-odd functions. This implies different predictions on the Q² dependence of the above mentioned asymmetries. Our theoretical result on unpolarized Drell–Yan is compared with available data. Predictions on other azimuthal asymmetries could be tested against yields of planned experiments of Drell–Yan and semiinclusive deep inelastic scattering.

We update the well-known BLNY fit to the low transverse momentum Drell–Yan lepton pair productions in hadronic collisions, by considering the constraints from the semi-inclusive hadron production in deep inelastic scattering (SIDIS) from HERMES and COMPASS experiments. We follow the Collins–Soper–Sterman (CSS) formalism with the $b_{\ast }$-prescription. A nonperturbative form factor associated with the transverse momentum dependent quark distributions is found in the analysis with a new functional form different from that of BLNY. This releases the tension between the BLNY fit to the Drell–Yan data with the SIDIS data from HERMES/COMPASS in the CSS resummation formalism.

This review stresses the theoretical elements that underlie a wide range of phenomenological studies of high-energy QCD, which include both soft and hard processes. After a brief introduction to the basics of QCD, various aspects of QCD-based phenomenology are covered: color transparency, hadronization of color charges, Regge phenomenology, parton model, Bjorken scaling and its violation, DGLAP evolution equation, BFKL formalism, GLR-MQ evolution equation and saturation. In the last part of the review, we employ the light-cone dipole formalism to describe deep inelastic lepton scattering, Drell — Yan processes, direct photon production, diffraction, quark and gluon shadowing in nuclei, the Cronin effect and nuclear broadening.

The Drell–Yan process is an invaluable tool for probing the structure of hadrons, and the pion-induced Drell–Yan process is unique in its sensitivity to several subtleties of the partonic structure. This is a brief review of the pionic Drell–Yan process with particular emphasis on the dilepton angular distributions and nuclear modification of the parton distributions (the EMC effect).

We investigate the contribution of partonic interactions between incident nucleons and produced mesons to the dilepton continuum in heavy-ion reactions. A schematic model is employed in order to calculate the resulting Drell–Yan yield as a function of collision energy and for different scenarios concerning the formation of hadrons. The secondary Drell–Yan process is found to be significant for invariant masses $m\approx 1.5$GeV in central $A+A$ collisions around $\sqrt{s_{\mathrm{\text{NN}}}}\approx 15-20$GeV, but less so at much lower or much higher energies. Secondary Drell–Yan dileptons should be observable in experiments due to their distinct rapidity dependence as a characteristic deviation from the well-known (primary) Drell–Yan contribution due to $N+N$ interactions. The predicted strong dependence of the secondary Drell–Yan contribution on the nuclear collision energy can be used to experimentally probe the effective hadronic formation time of secondaries.

The introduction talk given at the beginning of QCD Evolution workshop held in Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility (Jefferson Lab) on May 14 -17, 2012.

In the description of protons, we go beyond the ordinary collinear parton distribution functions (PDFs), by including transverse momentum dependent PDFs (TMDs). As such, we become sensitive to polarization modes of the partons and protons that one cannot probe without accounting for transverse momenta of partons, in particular when looking at azimuthal asymmetries.

Hadronic processes require the inclusion of gluon contributions forming the gauge links, which are path-ordered exponentials tracing the color flow. In processes with two hadrons in the initial state, such as Drell-Yan (DY), the gauge links from different parts of the process get entangled. We show that in color disentangling this gauge link structure, one becomes sensitive to this color flow. After disentanglement, particular combinations of TMDs will require a different numerical color factor than one naively might have expected. Such color factors will even play a role for azimuthal asymmetries in the simplest hadronic processes such as DY.

We present a global fit of current available data for Drell-Yan and Z-boson production using the Transverse Momentum Dependent evolution formalism of Refs. [1–4]. We performed our analysis including perturbative calculable contributions up to next-to-next-to-leading-logarithmic accuracy. We took into account non-perturbative corrections both to the intrinsic nucleon structure and to the evolution kernel.

Transverse-momentum dependent parton distribution functions (TMDs) provide a description of nucleon structure in terms of the parton transverse momentum and its transverse spin. At leading twist there are eight TMDs, each offering a unique feature of quarks in a polarized or an unpolarized nucleon. The Sivers distribution is one of the most interesting TMD due to its non-universality. It has been extracted using the data from semi-inclusive deep-inelastic scattering (SIDIS), but there is no data yet from spin-dependent Drell-Yan (DY) process. Such measurement will provide a crucial test of TMD formalism which predicts an equal magnitude and opposite sign for the Sivers function extracted from SIDIS and DY process. We will discuss key future measurements of TMDs using both SIDIS and DY process with a focus on Hall A SoLID SIDIS program at Jefferson Lab.

We report on the studies of Transverse-Momentum-Dependent distributions (TMDs) at a future fixed-target experiment –AFTER@LHC– using the $p^{+}$ or Pb ion LHC beams, which would be the most energetic fixed-target experiment ever performed. AFTER@LHC opens new domains of particle and nuclear physics by complementing collider-mode experiments, in particular those of RHIC and the EIC projects. Both with an extracted beam by a bent crystal or with an internal gas target, the luminosity achieved by AFTER@LHC surpasses that of RHIC by up to 3 orders of magnitude. With an unpolarised target, it allows for measurements of TMDs such as the Boer-Mulders quark distributions and the distribution of unpolarised and linearly polarised gluons in unpolarised protons. Using polarised targets, one can access the quark and gluon Sivers TMDs through single transverse-spin asymmetries in Drell-Yan and quarkonium production. In terms of kinematics, the fixed-target mode combined with a detector covering ${\eta }_{\mathrm{\text{lab}}}\in [1,5]$ allows one to measure these asymmetries at large $x^{\uparrow }$ in the polarised nucleon.

Successful realization of polarized Drell-Yan physics program is one of the main goals of the second stage of the COMPASS experiment. Drell-Yan measurements with high energy (190 GeV/c) pion beam and transversely polarized NH3 target have been initiated by a pilot-run in the October 2014 and will be followed by 140 days of data taking in 2015. In the past twelve years COMPASS experiment performed series of SIDIS measurements with high energy muon beam and transversely polarized deuteron and proton targets. Results obtained for Sivers effect and other target transverse spin dependent and unpolarized azimuthal asymmetries in SIDIS serve as an important input for general understanding of spin-structure of the nucleon and are being used in numerous theoretical and phenomenological studies being carried out in the field of transvers-spin physics. Measurement of the Sivers and all other azimuthal effects in polarized Drell-Yan at COMPASS will reveal another side of the spin-puzzle providing a link between SIDIS and Drell-Yan branches. This will be a unique possibility to test universality and key-features of transverse momentum dependent distribution functions (TMD PDFs) using essentially same experimental setup and exploring same kinematic domain. In this review main physics aspects of future COMPASS polarized Drell-Yan measurement of azimuthal transverse spin asymmetries will be presented, giving a particular emphasis on the link with very recent COMPASS results obtained for SIDIS transverse spin asymmetries from four ”Drell-Yan” $Q^2$-ranges.

The rich proton-proton collision data of the LHC allow the study of QCD processes in a previously unexplored region with ever improving precision. This paper summarises recent results of the ATLAS, CMS and LHCb Collaborations using primarily multi-jet and vector boson plus jet data collected at $\sqrt{s}=8$ and 13 TeV. Comparisons to higher-order theoretical calculations and sophisticated Monte Carlo predictions are presented, as well as the impact of the data on the determination of the parton distribution functions and the measurement of the strong coupling constant, α_s.

During the INT-18-3 workshop, we presented an analysis of unpolarized Drell-Yan pair production in pion-nucleus scattering with a particular focus into the pion Transverse Momentum Distributions in view of the future Electron Ion Collider. The transverse distributions of the pion calculated in a Nambu–Jona-Lasinio framework, with Pauli-Villars regularization, were used. The pion Transverse Momentum Distributions evolved up to next-to-leading logarithmic accuracy is then tested against the transverse momentum spectrum of dilepton pairs up to a transverse momentum of 2 GeV. We found a fair agreement with available pion-nucleus data. This contribution joins common efforts from the TMD and the pion structure communities for the Electron Ion Collider.

Within the framework of light-cone quantization we derive the overlap representation of generalized parton distributions for transversely polarized quarks using the Fock-state decomposition in the transverse-spin basis. We apply this formalism to the case of light-cone wave functions in a constituent quark model giving numerical results for the four chiral-odd generalized parton distributions in a region where they describe the emission and reabsorption of a quark by the nucleon. With the transversity distribution obtained in the forward limit of the generalized distribution, we provide some predictions for the double transverse-spin asymmetry in Drell-Yan dilepton production in the kinematics of the experiment.

The roles of the Drell-Yan experiments in studying the Transverse-Momentum-Dependent (TMD) parton distributions are discussed. Recent results from the Fermilab E866 experiment on the angular distributions of Drell-Yan dimuons in p + p and p + d at 800 GeV/c are presented. These data are compared with the pion-induced Drell-Yan data, and with models which attribute the cos2ɸ azimuthal distribution to the presence of the transverse-momentum-dependent Boer-Mulders structure function . Constraints on the magnitude of the sea-quark structure functions are obtained. Future prospects for studying the TMDs with Drell-Yan experiments at Fermilab and J-PARC are also discussed.

The COMPASS experiment is investigating possible physics aspects connect with the use of the polarized target (PT) together with the secondary (CERN–SPS) hadron beams. The main purpose of this project is to study the Drell–Yan reactions as a clear tool to measure the parton distribution functions, in particular the Boer-Mulders, the Sivers and the transversity functions.