Hadronic production of large-p⊥leptons and of large-Q2lepton pairs

Abstract

We study, within the framework of the constituent-interchange model, the contribution of the subprocess meson + quark \ensuremath{\rightarrow} massive photon + quark to the production of massive lepton paris and of large-${p}_{\ensuremath{\perp}}$ leptons. Special attention is paid to the problem of gauge invariance. Our numerical results indicate that this subprocess may give, for the massive-pair production, a greater contribution than that coming from the Drell-Yan mechanism in the range $1\ensuremath{\lesssim}{Q}^{2}\ensuremath{\lesssim}9$ Ge${\mathrm{V}}^{2}$. Its contribution to the large-${p}_{\ensuremath{\perp}}$ lepton production may become observable for ${p}_{\ensuremath{\perp}}\ensuremath{\gtrsim}3\ensuremath{-}4$ GeV/c. We also argue that the best way to study the origin of lepton pairs of momentum $Q$ consists in looking at $\frac{d\ensuremath{\sigma}}{d{Q}^{2}d\stackrel{\ensuremath{\rightarrow}}{\mathrm{Q}}}$; a calculation of $\frac{d\ensuremath{\sigma}}{d{Q}_{\ensuremath{\perp}}}$ within our model agrees well with the available data.