Eur. Phys. J. C (2017) 77: 488
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjc/s10052-017-5036-x

Regular Article - Theoretical Physics

Vector boson production in pPb and PbPb collisions at the LHC and its impact on nCTEQ15 PDFs

¹ Laboratoire de Physique Subatomique et de Cosmologie, Université Grenoble-Alpes, CNRS/IN2P3, 53 Avenue des Martyrs, 38026, Grenoble, France
² Institute of Nuclear Physics Polish Academy of Sciences, 31342, Krakow, Poland
³ Southern Methodist University, Dallas, TX, 75275, USA
⁴ Physik-Institut, Universität Zürich, Winterthurerstrasse 190, 8057, Zürich, Switzerland
⁵ Institut für Theoretische Physik, Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster, Wilhelm-Klemm-Straße 9, 48149, Münster, Germany

^* e-mail: kusina@lpsc.in2p3.fr

Received: 23 February 2017
Accepted: 29 June 2017
Published online: 21 July 2017

Abstract

We provide a comprehensive comparison of vector boson production data in pPb and PbPb collisions at the LHC with predictions obtained using the nCTEQ15 PDFs. We identify the measurements which have the largest potential impact on the PDFs, and estimate the effect of including these data using a Bayesian reweighting method. We find this data set can provide information as regards both the nuclear corrections and the heavy flavor (strange quark) PDF components. As for the proton, the parton flavor determination/separation is dependent on nuclear corrections (from heavy target DIS, for example), this information can also help improve the proton PDFs.