Nuclear parton distribution functions and energy loss effect in the Drell-Yan reaction off nuclei

Abstract

The energy loss effect in nuclear matter is another nuclear effect apart from the nuclear effects on the parton distribution as in deep inelastic scattering process. The quark energy loss can be measured best by the nuclear dependence of the high energy nuclear Drell-Yan process. By means of two typical kinds of quark energy loss parametrization and the different sets of nuclear parton distribution functions, we present a analysis of the E866 experiments on the nuclear dependence of Drell-Yan lepton pair production resulting from the bombardment of Be, Fe and W targets by 800GeV protons at Fermilab. It is found that the quark energy loss in cold nuclei is strongly dependent on the used nuclear parton distribution functions. The further prospects of using relatively low energy proton incident on nuclear targets are presented by combining the quark energy loss rate determined from a fit to the E866 nuclear-dependent ratios versus $x_1$, with the nuclear parton distribution functions given from lA deep inelastic scattering (DIS) data. The experimental study of the relatively low energy nuclear Drell-Yan process can give valuable insight in the enengy loss of fast quark propagating a cold nuclei and help to pin down nuclear parton distributions functions.