Measurement of the Strange Quark Distribution Function in W + Charm Quark Events

Abstract

We investigate the prospects of measuring the strange quark distribution function at the Tevatron, using $W$ plus charm quark events. The $W$ plus charm quark signal produced by strange quark--gluon fusion, $sg\rightarrow W^-c$ and $\bar sg\rightarrow W^+\bar c$, is approximately 5\% of the inclusive $W+1$ jet cross section for jets with a transverse momentum $p_T(j)>10$~GeV. We study the sensitivity of the $W$ plus charm quark cross section to the parametrization of the strange quark distribution function, and evaluate the various background processes. Strategies to identify charm quarks in CDF and D$0\llap/$ are briefly described.