https://doi.org/10.1140/epjc/s10052-019-6997-8
Regular Article - Experimental Physics
Understanding and constraining the PDF uncertainties in a W boson mass measurement with forward muons at the LHC
1
University of Liverpool, Liverpool, UK
2
University of Warwick, Coventry, UK
3
University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
* e-mail: martina.pili@physics.ox.ac.uk
Received:
14
February
2019
Accepted:
29
May
2019
Published online:
13
June
2019
Precision electroweak tests are a powerful probe of physics beyond the Standard Model, but the sensitivity is limited by the precision with which the W boson mass (
) has been measured. The Parton Distribution Function (PDF) uncertainties are a potential limitation for measurements of with LHC data. It has recently been pointed out that, thanks to LHCb’s unique forward rapidity acceptance, a new measurement of by LHCb can improve this situation. Here we report on a detailed study on the mechanism driving the PDF uncertainty in the LHCb measurement of , and propose an approach which should reduce this uncertainty by roughly a factor of two using LHCb Run 2 data.
© The Author(s), 2019
