Production of<i>Z</i>⁰and ${W}^{+}{/W}^{-}$ in relativistic heavy-ion collisions at the LHC

Abstract

The productions of massive gauge bosons, $Z^0$ and $W^+/W^-$, in heavy-ion\nreactions at the LHC, provide an excellent tool to study the cold nuclear\nmatter effects in high-energy nuclear collisions. In this paper we investigate\n$Z^0$ and $W^+/W^-$ productions in p+Pb and Pb+Pb at the LHC, at NLO and NNLO\nwith DYNNLO incorporating the nuclear PDFs (nPDFs) parametrization sets EPS09\nand DSSZ, within the framework of perturbative QCD. The numerical simulations\nof the transverse momentum spectra, rapidity dependence, and related nuclear\nmodification factors for $Z^0$ and $W$ particles, as well as the charge\nasymmetry for W boson, are provided and tested against the latest experimental\ndata. It is found that the theoretical results with EPS09 and DSSZ nPDFs can\ngive good descriptions of the recent data on $Z^0$ and $W^{\\pm}$ particles in\np+Pb and Pb+Pb within the experimental error bars, though some differences\nbetween results with EPS09 and DSSZ can be observed, especially in the rapidity\ndependence of the $Z^0$ yield. Theoretical predictions for future measurements\non $Z^0$ and $W$ in p+Pb and Pb+Pb collisions at the LHC are also provided.\n