https://doi.org/10.1140/epjc/s10052-022-10280-6
Regular Article - Experimental Physics
Reduction of the electroweak correlation in the PDF updating by using the forward–backward asymmetry of Drell–Yan process
1
Department of Modern Physics, University of Science and Technology of China, Jinzhai Road 96, 230026, Hefei, Anhui, China
2
Department of Physics, College of Sciences, Northeastern University, 110819, Shenyang, China
3
Institute of Particle Physics, Central China Normal University, 430079, Wuhan, Hubei, China
4
Department of Physics and Astronomy, Michigan State University, 48823, East Lansing, MI, USA
Received:
16
November
2021
Accepted:
29
March
2022
Published online:
26
April
2022
We propose a new observable for the measurement of the forward–backward asymmetry in Drell–Yan lepton production. At hadron colliders, the
distribution is sensitive to both the electroweak (EW) fundamental parameter
, the weak mixing angle, and the parton distribution functions (PDFs). Hence, the determination of
and the updating of PDFs by directly using the same
spectrum are strongly correlated. This correlation would introduce large bias or uncertainty into both precise measurements of EW and PDF sectors. In this article, we show that the sensitivity of
on
is dominated by its average value around the Z pole region, while the shape (or gradient) of the
spectrum is insensitive to
and contains important information on the PDF modeling. Accordingly, a new observable related to the gradient of the spectrum is introduced, and demonstrated to be able to significantly reduce the potential bias on the determination of
when updating the PDFs using the same
data.
© The Author(s) 2022
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