Nuclear PDFs from neutrino deep inelastic scattering

We study nuclear effects in charged current deep inelastic neutrino-iron scattering in the frame-work of a chi^2 analysis of parton distribution functions. We extract a set of iron PDFs and show that under reasonable assumptions it is possible to constrain the valence, light sea and strange quark distributions. Our iron PDFs are used to compute x_{Bj}-dependent and Q^2-dependent nuclear correction factors for iron structure functions which are required in global analyses of free nucleon PDFs. We compare our results with nuclear correction factors from neutrino-nucleus scattering models and correction factors for charged lepton-iron scattering. We find that, except for very high x_{Bj}, our correction factors differ in both shape and magnitude from the correction factors of the models and charged-lepton scattering.Comment: 25 pages, 10 figures; minor updates to match published versio

The impact of new neutrino DIS and Drell-Yan data on large-x parton distributions

New data sets have recently become available for neutrino and antineutrino deep inelastic scattering on nuclear targets and for inclusive dimuon production in pp pd interactions. These data sets are sensitive to different combinations of parton distribution functions in the large-x region and, therefore, provide different constraints when incorporated into global parton distribution function fits. We compare and contrast the effects of these new data on parton distribution fits, with special emphasis on the effects at large x. The effects of the use of nuclear targets in the neutrino and antineutrino data sets are also investigated.Comment: 24 pages, 13 figure

Uncertainties in determining parton distributions at large x

We critically examine uncertainties in parton distribution functions (PDFs) at large x arising from nuclear effects in deuterium F2 structure function data. Within a global PDF analysis, we assess the impact on the PDFs from uncertainties in the deuteron wave function at short distances and nucleon off-shell effects, the use of relativistic kinematics, as well as the use of less a restrictive parametrization of the d/u ratio. We find that in particular the d-quark and gluon PDFs vary significantly with the choice of nuclear model. We highlight the impact of these uncertainties on the determination of the neutron structure function, and on W boson production and parton luminosity at the Tevatron and the LHC. Finally, we discuss prospects for new measurements sensitive to the d-quark and gluon distributions but insensitive to nuclear corrections.Comment: 37 pages, 13 figures. Final published versio

New parton distributions from large-x and low-Q^2 data

We report results of a new global next-to-leading order fit of parton distribution functions in which cuts on W and Q are relaxed, thereby including more data at high values of x. Effects of target mass corrections (TMCs), higher twist contributions, and nuclear corrections for deuterium data are significant in the large-x region. The leading twist parton distributions are found to be stable to TMC model variations as long as higher twist contributions are also included. The behavior of the d quark as x-->1 is particularly sensitive to the deuterium corrections, and using realistic nuclear smearing models the d-quark distribution at large x is found to be softer than in previous fits performed with more restrictive cuts.Comment: 31 pages, 8 figures. Minor corrections. References added. To appear in Phys.Rev.

Renaissance of the ~1 TeV Fixed-Target Program

This document describes the physics potential of a new fixed-target program based on a ~1 TeV proton source. Two proton sources are potentially available in the future: the existing Tevatron at Fermilab, which can provide 800 GeV protons for fixed-target physics, and a possible upgrade to the SPS at CERN, called SPS+, which would produce 1 TeV protons on target. In this paper we use an example Tevatron fixed-target program to illustrate the high discovery potential possible in the charm and neutrino sectors. We highlight examples which are either unique to the program or difficult to accomplish at other venues.Comment: 31 pages, 11 figure

Single neutral pion production by charged-current νˉμ\bar{\nu}_\mu interactions on hydrocarbon at ⟨Eν⟩=\langle E_\nu \rangle = 3.6 GeV

Single neutral pion production via muon antineutrino charged-current interactions in plastic scintillator (CH) is studied using the \minerva detector exposed to the NuMI low-energy, wideband antineutrino beam at Fermilab. Measurement of this process constrains models of neutral pion production in nuclei, which is important because the neutral-current analog is a background for $\bar{\nu}_e$ appearance oscillation experiments. The differential cross sections for $\pi^0$ momentum and production angle, for events with a single observed $\pi^0$ and no charged pions, are presented and compared to model predictions. These results comprise the first measurement of the $\pi^0$ kinematics for this process.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figures, submitted to Physics Letters