TMDs and Drell-Yan Experiments at Fermilab and J-PARC

The roles of the Drell-Yan experiments in studying the Transverse-Momentum-Dependent (TMD) parton distributions are discussed. Recent results from the Fermilab E866 experiment on the angular distributions of Drell-Yan dimuons in $p+p$ and $p+d$ at 800 GeV/c are presented. These data are compared with the pion-induced Drell-Yan data, and with models which attribute the $\cos 2 \phi$ azimuthal distribution to the presence of the transverse-momentum-dependent Boer-Mulders structure function $h_1^\perp$. Constraints on the magnitude of the sea-quark $h_1^\perp$ structure functions are obtained. Future prospects for studying the TMDs with Drell-Yan experiments at Fermilab and J-PARC are also discussed.Comment: 10 pages, 3 figures, to appear in the Proceedings of "Transversity 2008" Worksho

Partonic substructure of nucleons and nuclei with dimuon production

Dimuon production has been studied in a series of fixed-target experiments at Fermilab during the last two decades. Highlights from these experiments, together with recent results from the Fermilab E866 experiment, are presented. Future prospects for studying the parton distributions in the nucleons and nuclei using dimuon production are also discussed.Comment: 6 pages. Contribution to the proceedings of "Achievements and New Directions in subatomic Physics: Workshop in Honour of Tony Thomas' 60th Birthday," Adelaide, South Australia, February 15-19, 2010

Transverse Spin Effects in Future Drell-Yan Experiments

We review the current status and future prospect for probing the transverse momentum dependent (TMD) parton distributions using the Drell-Yan process. We focus on the Boer-Mulders and Sivers functions, which are expected to undergo a sign-change from semi-inclusive deep-inelastic scattering (SIDIS) to Drell-Yan process. The constraints of existing Drell-Yan and SIDIS experiments on the signs of these functions are discussed. Future Drell-Yan measurements for the TMDs are also presented.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures, Proceedings for the "Transversity 2014" Worksho

Novel Phenomenology of Parton Distributions from the Drell-Yan Process

The Drell-Yan massive lepton-pair production in hadronic collisions provides a unique tool complementary to the Deep-Inelastic Scattering for probing the partonic substructures in hadrons. We review key concepts, approximations, and progress for QCD factorization of the Drell-Yan process in terms of collinear or transverse momentum dependent (TMD) parton distribution functions. We present experimental results from recent fixed-target Drell-Yan as well as $W$ and $Z$ boson production at colliders, focussing on the topics of flavor structure of the nucleon sea as well as the extraction of novel Sivers and Boer-Mulders functions via single transverse spin asymmetries and azimuthal lepton angular distribution of the Drell-Yan process. Prospects for future Drell-Yan experiments are also presented.Comment: 50 pages and 23 figures, and references added and minor typos correcte

Flavor Structure of the Nucleon Sea

We review the current status and future prospects on the subject of flavor structure of the nucleon sea. The flavor structure of the nucleon sea provides unique information on the non-perturbative aspects of strong interactions allowing stringent tests of various models on the partonic structures of the nucleons as well as lattice QCD calculations. The scope of this review covers the unpolarized, polarized, and the transverse-momentum dependent sea-quark distributions of the nucleons. While the main focus of this review is on the physics motivation and recent progress on the subject of the nucleon sea, we also discuss future prospects of addressing some outstanding issues on the flavor structure of the nucleon sea.Comment: 61 pages and 36 figures; published versio