Probing Gluon TMD Models with Drell--Yan Structure Functions

Abstract

We compute structure functions for the Drell--Yan process in proton-proton collisions at the center of mass energy $\sqrt{S} = 8 \mathrm{TeV}$ both parity conserving and parity breaking. For this calculation, we use the high-energy factorization formalism. The hard scattering matrix elements used in our derivation consist of two channels -- $q_\mathrm{val} g^* \to q V^*$ and $g^* g^* \to q \overline{q} V^*$, both at the tree level. We consider four types of gluon TMD models: Gaussian, Weizs\"{a}cker--Williams (WW), Kimber--Martin--Ryskin (KMR), and Jung--Hautmann (JH). We also consider the models with phenomenological adjustments to improve the data description. We derive and compare the structure functions calculated for different gluon TMD models with the ATLAS 2016 data. Based on this comparison, we calculate $\chi^2$ per number of degrees of freedom for each of the predictions. This assessment shows clear differences between the predictions obtained with different TMD models, both in the description of the full data set and in the case of individual structure functions. The best description of the structure functions data is obtained with one of the modified WW models. Our analysis can serve to identify the features of the TMD model that should be considered in future gluon TMD fits.