The ATLAS Collaboration has measured the inclusive production of $Z$ bosons via their decays into electron and muon pairs in $p+$Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}=5.02$ TeV at the Large Hadron Collider. The measurements are made using data corresponding to integrated luminosities of 29.4 nb$^{-1}$ and 28.1 nb$^{-1}$ for $Z \rightarrow ee$ and $Z \rightarrow \mu\mu$, respectively. The results from the two channels are consistent and combined to obtain a cross section times the $Z \rightarrow \ell\ell$ branching ratio, integrated over the rapidity region $|y^{*}_{Z}|<3.5$, of 139.8 $\pm$ 4.8 (stat.) $\pm$ 6.2 (syst.) $\pm$ 3.8 (lumi.) nb. Differential cross sections are presented as functions of the $Z$ boson rapidity and transverse momentum, and compared with models based on parton distributions both with and without nuclear corrections. The centrality dependence of $Z$ boson production in $p+$Pb collisions is measured and analyzed within the framework of a standard Glauber model and the model's extension for fluctuations of the underlying nucleon-nucleon scattering cross section.
The centrality bias factors derived from data as explained in the text. Model calculations shown in the Figure are found in arXiv:1412.0976.
The differential $Z$ boson production cross section, $d\sigma/dy^\mathrm{*}_{Z}$, as a function of $Z$ boson rapidity in the center-of-mass frame $y^\mathrm{*}_{Z}$, for $Z\rightarrow ee$, $Z\rightarrow\mu\mu$, and their combination $Z\rightarrow\ell\ell$.
The differential cross section of $Z$ boson production multiplied by the Bjorken $x$ of the parton in the lead nucleus, $x_{Pb} d\sigma /dx_{Pb}$, as a function of $x_{Pb}$.
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