Abstract
In this article we obtain a new set of nuclear parton distribution functions (nuclear PDFs) at next-to-leading order and next-to-next-to-leading order accuracy in perturbative QCD. The common nuclear deep-inelastic scattering (DIS) data analyzed in our study are complemented by the available charged-current neutrino DIS data with nuclear targets and data from Drell-Yan cross-section measurements for several nuclear targets. In addition, the most recent DIS data from the Jefferson Lab CLAS and Hall C experiments are also added to our data sample. For these specific datasets, we consider the impact of target mass corrections and higher twist effects which are expected to be important in the region of large $x$ and intermediate-to-low $Q^2$. Our analysis is based on a publicly available open-source tool {\tt APFEL}, which has been modified to be applicable for our analysis of nuclear PDFs. Heavy quark contributions to nuclear DIS are considered within the framework of the {\tt FONLL} general-mass variable-flavor-number scheme. The most recent {\tt CT18} PDFs are used as baseline proton PDFs. The uncertainties of nuclear PDFs are determined using the standard Hessian approach. The results of our global QCD analysis are compared with existing nuclear PDF sets and with the fitted cross-sections, for which our set of nuclear PDFs provides a very good description.
Highlights
Nuclear parton distribution functions [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19] quantify the structure of quarks and gluons in nucleons bound in a nucleus and are essential ingredients for the calculation of hard scattering cross sections in charged lepton deeply inelastic scattering (DIS) off nuclear targets and high-energy heavy-ion collisions
In order to examine the potential mismatch between these two schemes at next-to-leading order (NLO), we have calculated the inclusive DIS cross sections for a proton target using the SACOT-χ and FONLL-B mass schemes
The results showed that the differences between these two schemes on the calculated cross sections are rather small, especially for x > 0.01, i.e., the range which is covered by a large amount of nuclear data
Summary
Nuclear parton distribution functions (nuclear PDFs) [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19] quantify the structure of quarks and gluons in nucleons bound in a nucleus and are essential ingredients for the calculation of hard scattering cross sections in charged lepton deeply inelastic scattering (DIS) off nuclear targets and high-energy heavy-ion collisions. We should mention here that a large amount of new and precise data from the LHC in proton-lead and lead-lead collisions became recently available [27,28,29,30,31] These high precision data, especially the data on W and Z boson production in proton-lead collisions obtained by the ATLAS and CMS Collaborations at center-of-mass energies of 5.02 TeV and 8.16 TeV, could provide further constraints on nuclear PDFs, especially for the case of the nuclear gluon PDF. Their impact on nuclear PDFs has been extensively studied in Refs.
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
