The production of Z bosons in pPb collisions at sqrt(s[NN]) = 5.02 TeV is studied by the CMS experiment via the electron and muon decay channels. The inclusive cross section is compared to pp collision predictions, and found to scale with the number of elementary nucleon-nucleon collisions. The differential cross sections as a function of the Z boson rapidity and transverse momentum are measured. Though they are found to be consistent within uncertainty with theoretical predictions both with and without nuclear effects, the forward-backward asymmetry suggests the presence of nuclear effects at large rapidities. These results provide new data for constraining nuclear parton distribution functions.
A measurement of the production cross-section for $Z$ bosons that decay to muons is presented. The data were recorded by the LHCb detector during $pp$ collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 7 TeV, and correspond to an integrated luminosity of 1.0 fb$^{-1}$. The cross-section is measured for muons in the pseudorapidity range $2.0 < \eta < 4.5$ with transverse momenta $p_{T} > 20$ GeV/c. The dimuon mass is restricted to $60 < M_{\mu^{+}\mu^{-}} < 120$ GeV/c$^{2}$. The measured cross-section is $$\sigma_{Z\rightarrow\mu^{+}\mu^{-}} = (76.0 \pm 0.3 \pm 0.5 \pm 1.0 \pm 1.3) \, \text{pb}$$ where the uncertainties are due to the sample size, systematic effects, the beam energy and the luminosity. This result is in good agreement with theoretical predictions at next-to-next-to-leading order in perturbative quantum chromodynamics. The cross-section is also measured differentially as a function of kinematic variables of the $Z$ boson. Ratios of the production cross-sections of electroweak bosons are presented using updated LHCb measurements of $W$ boson production. A precise test of the Standard Model is provided by the measurement of the ratio $$\frac{\sigma_{W^{+}\rightarrow\mu^{+}\nu_{\mu}} + \sigma_{W^{-}\rightarrow\mu^{-}\bar{\nu}_{\mu}}}{\sigma_{Z\rightarrow\mu^{+}\mu^{-}}} = 20.63\pm0.09\pm0.12\pm0.05,$$ where the uncertainty due to luminosity cancels.
The charged particle transverse momentum spectra in the midrapidity and forward pseudorapidity ranges are presented for pPb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}}=5.02$~TeV. The data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 26~${\rm nb}^{-1}$ was collected with the CMS detector at the LHC. The nuclear modification factor is measured at midrapidity by normalizing the measured pPb spectrum to a pp reference spectrum constructed from previous measurements. In addition, the asymmetries in the charged particle yields between equivalent positive and negative pseudorapidity ranges in the center-of-mass frame are presented as a function of transverse momentum.
Measurements are presented of electroweak boson production using data from $pp$ collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of $\sqrt{s} = 8\mathrm{\,Te\kern -0.1em V}$. The analysis is based on an integrated luminosity of $2.0\mathrm{\,fb}^{-1}$ recorded with the LHCb detector. The bosons are identified in the $W\rightarrow\mu\nu$ and $Z\rightarrow\mu^{+}\mu^{-}$ decay channels. The cross-sections are measured for muons in the pseudorapidity range $2.0 < \eta < 4.5$, with transverse momenta $p_{\rm T} > 20{\mathrm{\,Ge\kern -0.1em V\!/}c}$ and, in the case of the $Z$ boson, a dimuon mass within $60 < M_{\mu^{+}\mu^{-}} < 120{\mathrm{\,Ge\kern -0.1em V\!/}c^{2}}$. The results are \begin{align*} \sigma_{W^{+}\rightarrow\mu^{+}\nu} &= 1093.6 \pm 2.1 \pm 7.2 \pm 10.9 \pm 12.7{\rm \,pb} \, , \sigma_{W^{-}\rightarrow\mu^{-}\bar{\nu}} &= \phantom{0}818.4 \pm 1.9 \pm 5.0 \pm \phantom{0}7.0 \pm \phantom{0}9.5{\rm \,pb} \, , \sigma_{Z\rightarrow\mu^{+}\mu^{-}} &= \phantom{00}95.0 \pm 0.3 \pm 0.7 \pm \phantom{0}1.1 \pm \phantom{0}1.1{\rm \,pb} \, , \end{align*} where the first uncertainties are statistical, the second are systematic, the third are due to the knowledge of the LHC beam energy and the fourth are due to the luminosity determination. The evolution of the $W$ and $Z$ boson cross-sections with centre-of-mass energy is studied using previously reported measurements with $1.0\mathrm{\,fb}^{-1}$ of data at $7\mathrm{\,Te\kern -0.1em V}$. Differential distributions are also presented. Results are in good agreement with theoretical predictions at next-to-next-to-leading order in perturbative quantum chromodynamics.
We present the midrapidity charged pion invariant cross sections and the ratio of $\pi^-$-to-$\pi^+$ production ($5<p_T<13$ GeV/$c$), together with the double-helicity asymmetries ($5<p_T<12$ GeV/$c$) in polarized $p$$+$$p$ collisions at $\sqrt{s} = 200$ GeV. The cross section measurements are consistent with perturbative calculations in quantum chromodynamics within large uncertainties in the calculation due to the choice of factorization, renormalization, and fragmentation scales. However, the theoretical calculation of the ratio of $\pi^-$-to-$\pi^+$ production when considering these scale uncertainties overestimates the measured value, suggesting further investigation of the uncertainties on the charge-separated pion fragmentation functions is needed. Due to cancellations of uncertainties in the charge ratio, direct inclusion of these ratio data in future parameterizations should improve constraints on the flavor dependence of quark fragmentation functions to pions. By measuring charge-separated pion asymmetries, one can gain sensitivity to the sign of $\Delta G$ through the opposite sign of the up and down quark helicity distributions in conjunction with preferential fragmentation of positive pions from up quarks and negative pions from down quarks. The double-helicity asymmetries presented are sensitive to the gluon helicity distribution over an $x$ range of $\sim$0.03--0.16.
Presented are the first measurements of the transverse single-spin asymmetries ($A_N$) for neutral pions and eta mesons in $p$+Au and $p$+Al collisions at $\sqrt{s_{_{NN}}}=200$ GeV in the pseudorapidity range $|\eta|<$0.35 with the PHENIX detector at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider. The asymmetries are consistent with zero, similar to those for midrapidity neutral pions and eta mesons produced in $p$+$p$ collisions. These measurements show no evidence of additional effects that could potentially arise from the more complex partonic environment present in proton-nucleus collisions.
Polarized proton-proton collisions provide leading-order access to gluons, presenting an opportunity to constrain gluon spin-momentum correlations within transversely polarized protons and enhance our understanding of the three-dimensional structure of the proton. Midrapidity open-heavy-flavor production at $\sqrt{s}=200$ GeV is dominated by gluon-gluon fusion, providing heightened sensitivity to gluon dynamics relative to other production channels. Transverse single-spin asymmetries of positrons and electrons from heavy-flavor hadron decays are measured at midrapidity using the PHENIX detector at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider. These charge-separated measurements are sensitive to gluon correlators that can in principle be related to gluon orbital angular momentum via model calculations. Explicit constraints on gluon correlators are extracted for two separate models, one of which had not been constrained previously.
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