Nuclear dependence of proton-induced Drell-Yan dimuon production at 120 GeV at SeaQuest

Dannowitz, Bryan Paul

Permalink

https://hdl.handle.net/2142/92782 Copy

Description

Title

Nuclear dependence of proton-induced Drell-Yan dimuon production at 120 GeV at SeaQuest

Author(s)

Dannowitz, Bryan Paul

Issue Date

2016-07-12

Director of Research (if dissertation) or Advisor (if thesis)

Makins, Naomi C. R.

Doctoral Committee Chair(s)

Peng, Jen-Chieh

Committee Member(s)

• Stone, Michael
• Eckstein, Jim

Department of Study

Physics

Discipline

Physics

Degree Granting Institution

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Degree Name

Ph.D.

Degree Level

Dissertation

Keyword(s)

• Nuclear Physics
• Drell-Yan
• Experimental Physics
• Electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) effect

Abstract

A measurement of the atomic mass (A) dependence of Drell-Yan (p + A → μ+μ− + X) dimuons produced by 120 GeV protons is presented here. The data was taken by the SeaQuest experiment at Fermilab using a proton beam extracted from its Main Injector. Over 61,000 dimuon pairs were recorded with invariant mass between 4.2 and 10GeV and target parton momentum fraction x2 between 0.1 and 0.5 for nuclear targets H, d (deuterium), C, Fe, and W. The ratio of Drell-Yan dimuon yields per nucleon (Y) for heavy nuclei over deuterium, R = Y(A)/Y(d), is approximately equal to the ratio of the distributions of anti-up quarks in the two nuclei. This measurement is therefore sensitive to modifications in the anti-quark sea distributions in nuclei for the case of proton-induced Drell-Yan. The data analyzed here and in the future of SeaQuest will provide tighter constraints on various models that attempt to define the anomalous behavior of nuclear modification as seen in deep inelastic lepton scattering, a phenomenon generally known as the EMC effect.

Graduation Semester

2016-08

Type of Resource

text

Permalink

http://hdl.handle.net/2142/92782

Copyright and License Information

Copyright 2016 Bryan Dannowitz

Owning Collections