Abstract.
The large ¯(x)/¯(x) ratio observed by Fermilab E866/NuSea convincingly demonstrated that the sea is not simply a result of pQCD. Moreover, meson cloud models also failed to explain fully the observed kinematic dependence. The Drell-Yan mechanism offers a unique, selective probe of antiquarks in the nucleon. Fermilab has approved a new Drell-Yan experiment, E906, that will exploit this feature to probe ¯(x)/¯(x) by measuring the ratio of cross-sections for the proton-induced Drell-Yan process on hydrogen to deuterium. When the nucleon is contained in a nucleus, the nucleon's parton distributions should to be modified; although this effect was not seen in the sea quark distributions obtained by Fermilab E772 with Drell-Yan scattering. The upcoming E906 Drell-Yan experiment will provide much more precise measurements over a wider kinematic range in order to guide and challenge the theoretical models.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
S.D. Drell, T.M. Yan, Phys. Rev. Lett. 25, 316 (1970).
K. Gottfried, Phys. Rev. Lett. 18, 1174 (1967).
P. Amaudruz, M. Arneodo, A. Arvidson, B. Badelek, G. Baum, J. Beaufays, I.G. Bird, M. Botje, C. Broggini, W. Brückner, Phys. Rev. Lett. 66, 2712 (1991).
M. Arneodo, A. Arvidson, B. Badelek, M. Ballintijn, G. Baum, J. Beaufays, I.G. Bird, P. Björkholm, M. Botje, C. Broggini, Phys. Rev. D 50, R1 (1994).
S.D. Ellis, W.J. Stirling, Phys. Lett. B 256, 258 (1991).
NA51 Collaboration (A. Baldit), Phys. Lett. B 332, 244 (1994).
J. Pumplin, JHEP 07, 012 (2002) hep-ph/0201195.
A.D. Martin, R.G. Roberts, W.J. Stirling, R.S. Thorne, Eur. Phys. J. C 39, 155 (2005) hep-ph/0411040.
M. Gluck, E. Reya, A. Vogt, Eur. Phys. J. C 5, 461 (1998) hep-ph/9806404.
FNAL E866/NuSea Collaboration (E.A. Hawker), Phys. Rev. Lett. 80, 3715 (1998) hep-ex/9803011.
FNAL E866/NuSea Collaboration (R.S. Towell), Phys. Rev. D 64, 052002 (2001) hep-ex/0103030.
E906/Drell-Yan Collaboration (P. Reimer, D. Geesaman), Experiment update to Fermilab PAC (2006).
E866/NuSea Collaboration (J.C. Peng), Phys. Rev. D 58, 092004 (1998) hep-ph/9804288.
European Muon Collaboration (J.J. Aubert), Phys. Lett. B 123, 275 (1983).
D.F. Geesaman, K. Saito, A.W. Thomas, Annu. Rev. Nucl. Part. Sci. 45, 337 (1995).
S.A. Kulagin, R. Petti, Nucl. Phys. A 765, 126 (2006) hep-ph/0412425.
D.M. Alde, Phys. Rev. Lett. 64, 2479 (1990).
J. Carlson, R. Schiavilla, Rev. Mod. Phys. 70, 743 (1998).
E.L. Berger, F. Coester, R.B. Wiringa, Phys. Rev. D 29, 398 (1984).
E.L. Berger, F. Coester, Phys. Rev. D 32, 1071 (1985).
F. Coester, private communication (2001).
H. Jung, G.A. Miller, Phys. Rev. C 41, 659 (1990).
G.E. Brown, M. Buballa, Z.B. Li, J. Wambach, Nucl. Phys. A 593, 295 (1995) nucl-th/9410049.
A.E.L. Dieperink, C.L. Korpa, Phys. Rev. C 55, 2665 (1997) nucl-th/9703025.
J.R. Smith, G.A. Miller, Phys. Rev. Lett. 91, 212301 (2003) nucl-th/0308048.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Reimer, P.E. Opportunities with Drell-Yan scattering: Probing sea quarks in the nucleon and nuclei. Eur. Phys. J. A 31, 593–596 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1140/epja/i2006-10196-3
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1140/epja/i2006-10196-3