The energy loss effect of incoming quark in the Drell-Yan reaction off nuclei

Abstract

By means of the analytic parameterizations of quenching weights based on BDMPS formalism, the leading-order computations for nuclear Drell-Yan differential cross section rations as a function of the quark momentum fraction are performed with the nuclear geometry effect in Drell-Yan dimuon production. The transport coefficient of the incoming quark energy loss in cold nuclear matter is extracted with a global analysis of the experimental data from NA3 and E866 collaborations. The extracted transport coefficient with the analytic parameterizations of BDMPS quenching weights is $\hat{q}=0.37\pm0.05$ GeV$^{2}$/fm. It is found that our predictions are in good agrement with the experimental measurements, and especially the agreement of calculations with NA3 experimental data has a significant improvement. The comparison of the theoretical results and the corresponding experimental data demonstrates intuitively that the energy loss effect of incoming quark is particularly significant at lower incident proton energies. It is hoped that the obtained results relevant to the NA3 experiment ($E_{beam}=150$ GeV) can provide useful reference for the forthcoming E906 Sea Quest experiment ($E_{beam}=120$ GeV).