• Open Access

Illuminating the charged leptons in the proton

Victor P. Gonçalves and Daniel E. Martins
Phys. Rev. D 107, 073007 – Published 26 April 2023

Abstract

The description of the structure of proton is fundamental in order to describe the standard model processes at the LHC as well as for the searching of new physics. Quantum fluctuations imply the presence of photons and leptons inside the proton, which admit a parton distribution function (PDF). Although the lepton PDFs are expected to be small, its presence opens new production mechanisms. In order to explore the lepton-induced processes at the LHC, a precise determination of the leptonic content of the proton is needed. In this paper we propose to constrain the content of charged leptons inside the proton through the study of the QED Compton scattering in ultraperipheral proton-nucleus collisions at the LHC. We estimate the total cross sections and associated distributions considering different models for the lepton PDFs and distinct lepton flavors. We demonstrate that a future experimental analysis of this process is feasible and that it can be used to constrain the content of electrons, muons, and taus inside the proton.

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  • Received 20 February 2023
  • Accepted 13 April 2023

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.107.073007

Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article’s title, journal citation, and DOI. Funded by SCOAP3.

Published by the American Physical Society

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Nuclear PhysicsParticles & Fields

Authors & Affiliations

Victor P. Gonçalves1,2,3,* and Daniel E. Martins3,4,†

  • 1Institut für Theoretische Physik, Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster, Wilhelm-Klemm-Straße 9, D-48149 Münster, Germany
  • 2Institute of Modern Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou 730000, China
  • 3Institute of Physics and Mathematics, Federal University of Pelotas, Postal Code 354, 96010-900, Pelotas, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil
  • 4The Henryk Niewodniczanski Institute of Nuclear Physics (IFJ)—Polish Academy of Sciences (PAN), 31-342, Krakow, Poland

  • *barros@ufpel.edu.br
  • daniel.ernani@ifj.edu.pl

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Issue

Vol. 107, Iss. 7 — 1 April 2023

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