20 research outputs found
Parton model versus color dipole formulation of the Drell-Yan process
In the kinematical region where the center of mass energy is much larger than
all other scales, the Drell-Yan process can be formulated in the target rest
frame in terms of the same color dipole cross section as low Bjorken-x deep
inelastic scattering. Since the mechanisms for heavy dilepton production appear
very different in the dipole approach and in the conventional parton model, one
may wonder whether these two formulations really represent the same physics. We
perform a comparison of numerical calculations in the color dipole approach
with calculations in the next-to-leading order parton model. For proton-proton
scattering, the results are very similar at low x_2 from fixed target to RHIC
energies, confirming the close connection between these two very different
approaches. We also compare the transverse momentum distributions of Drell-Yan
dileptons predicted in both formulations. The range of applicability of the
dipole formulation and the impact of future Drell-Yan data from RHIC for
determining the color dipole cross section are discussed. A detailed derivation
of the dipole formulation of the Drell-Yan process is also included.Comment: 20 pages, 5 figure