A possible nuclear effect on the NuTeV sin^2 theta_W anomaly

Abstract

We investigate a possible explanation for the NuTeV anomaly in terms of a nuclear correction difference between u_v and d_v distributions. Analyzing deep elastic scattering and Drell-Yan data for nuclear targets, we try to determine the correction difference and its effect on the anomaly. We find that the difference cannot be precisely determined at this stage due to the lack of data which are sensitive to the difference. Therefore, it is difficult to draw a solid conclusion about its effect although the anomaly could be explained, at least partially, by this kind of nuclear correction.