Probing small-$x$ gluons by low-mass Drell-Yan pairs at colliders

We present a summary of the physics of gluon saturation and non-linear QCD evolution at small values of parton momentum fraction $x$ in the proton and nucleus in the context of recent experimental results at HERA and RHIC. The rich physics potential of low-x studies at the LHC, especially in the forward region, is discussed and some benchmark measurements in pp, pA and AA collisions are introduced.

We discuss the double-spin asymmetry \aqt in the transversely polarized Drell-Yan process at small transverse-momentum Q_T of the produced dilepton. The soft gluon corrections relevant for small Q_T are resummed to all orders in \alpha_s, up to the next-to-leading logarithmic accuracy. We show that the soft gluon corrections largely cancel in the spin asymmetry, but the significant corrections still remain.The asymmetries \aqt are calculated for pp collision at RHIC and J-PAR...

We discuss the transverse momentum Q_T distribution of Drell-Yan pair, produced in collisions of transversely polarized protons. We calculate the transversely polarized Drell-Yan cross section up to order \alpha_s in the dimensional regularization scheme, which gives QCD prediction at large Q_T. For small Q_T region, we include all-orders resummation of large logarithms due to emission of soft gluons up to next-to-leading logarithmic accuracy. At intermediate Q_T region, the ...

We explore the possibility of measuring nuclear gluon distributions at the Relativistic Heavy-Ion Collider (RHIC) with $\sqrt{s}=200 \, {\rm GeV}$ proton-nucleus collisions. In addition to measurements at central rapidity, we consider also observables at forward rapidity, consistent with proposed upgrades to the experimental capabilities of STAR and sPHENIX. The processes we consider consist of Drell-Yan dilepton, dijet, and direct photon-jet production. The Drell-Yan process...

Predictions for Drell--Yan lepton pair production at low dilepton mass and small x at the LHC usually have a large scale dependence. This can be decreased by determining an "optimal factorization scale". In this paper, we reduce this scale by imposing a cutoff in azimuthal angle between the transverse momentum of the leptons, properly taking into account Sudakov effects. This allows one to probe the parton distributions at smaller scales eliminating most of the current theore...

We use the LHCb data on the forward production of $D$ mesons at 7, 13 and 5 TeV to make a direct determination of the gluon distribution, $xg$, at NLO in the $10^{-5} \lesssim x \lesssim 10^{-4}$ region. We first use a simple parametrization of the gluon density in each of the four transverse momentum intervals of the detected $D$ mesons. Second, we use a double log parametrization to make a combined fit to all the LHCb $D$ meson data. The values found for $xg$ in the above $...

We present high-accuracy QCD predictions for the transverse-momentum ($q_T$) distribution and fiducial cross sections of Drell-Yan lepton pairs produced in hadronic collisions. At small value of $q_T$ we resum to all perturbative orders the logarithmically enhanced contributions up to next-to-next-to-next-to-leading logarithmic (N$^3$LL) accuracy, including all the next-to-next-to-next-to-leading order (N$^3$LO) (i.e. $\mathcal{O}(\alpha_S^3)$) terms. Our resummed calculation...

After a brief introduction to low-x QCD and to resummation approaches, I illustrate the predictions for the gluon Green function and splitting function of a recent renormalization-group improved small-x resummation scheme. I argue, on this basis, that the range of validity of perturbative calculations is considerably extended in rapidity with respect to leading log expectations. The perturbative high-energy exponents are predicted in a phenomenologically interesting range, an...

Drell-Yan production is one of the precision cornerstones of the LHC, serving as calibration for measurements such as the $W$-boson mass. Its extreme precision at the level of 1% challenges theory predictions at the highest level. We present the first independent calculation of Drell-Yan production at order $\alpha_s^3$ in transverse-momentum ($q_T$) resummation improved perturbation theory. Our calculation reaches the state-of-the-art through inclusion of the recently publis...

QCD calculations for collider physics make use of perturbative solutions of renormalisation group equations (RGEs). Ambiguities related to these solutions can contribute significantly to systematic uncertainties of theoretical predictions for physical observables. We propose a general method to estimate these systematic effects using techniques inspired by soft-gluon and transverse-momentum resummation approaches. We first discuss the cases of the evolution of strong coupling...