Estimates of production cross sections and distributions forWbosons and hadronic jets in high-energyppandp¯pcollisions

Abstract

Using the quark-parton model, with structure functions chosen to agree with electroproduction and leptonpair-production data, the cross sections are calculated for the production of charged and neutral $W$ mesons in high-energy $\mathrm{pp}$ collisions. The single- and double-particle distributions for the leptonic and hadronic decays of the $W$ are presented along with leptonic background from electromagnetic pair production. Using the same model, the cross sections for production of single and double hadronic jets are also calculated using both colored-vector-gluon exchange and the Field-Feynman models for the elementary quark-quark scattering. It is concluded that the leptonic decay of the $W$ should be a strong signal well above background, and that the parity violation of the weak interaction leads to characteristically different distributions for leptons and antileptons. The production in proton-antiproton collisions is also studied and found to be only slightly above the proton-proton production. The cross section does not increase rapidly with energy for $\frac{s}{m_{W}^{}{}_{}{}^{2}}\ensuremath{\gtrsim}10$. For hadronic jet production, the vector-gluon and Field-Feynman models lead to significantly different distributions, and if the predictions of the former are true the hadronic jet decay of the $W$, although plentiful, will be difficult to see above background. The effects of transverse motion of the $W$, neglected in the quark model, are found to be unimportant.