# Dileptons from P-Nucleus Collisions

## Introduction

The experimental detection of high-mass lepton pairs produced in hadronic reactions has a long and rich history. The famous quarkonium states that revealed the existence of the charm and beauty quarks in the 1970s were discovered through their dilepton decay branches. They are superimposed on a continuum, which was anticipated theoretically in 1970 drell , and is now known as the Drell-Yan (DY) process. The DY process, electromagnetic quark-antiquark annihilation, is closely related to the deeply inelastic lepton scattering (DIS). By 1980, DY production was already a source of information about antiquark structure of the nucleon. Additionally, DY production with beams of pions and kaons yielded the structure functions of these unstable particles for the first time. Also notable in the history of the DY process were the discoveries of the $`W^\pm `$ and $`Z^0`$ particles in 1983, produced by a generalized (vector boson exchange) quark-antiquark annihilation mechanism.

New experimental work has been carried out in recent years by few but prolific collaborations working in the fixed-target programs at the CERN SPS accelerator and at Fermilab. A series of fixed-target dimuon production experiments (E772, E789, E866) have been carried out at Fermilab in the last 10 years. Some of the highlights from these experiments, namely the observation of pronounced flavor asymmetry in the nucleon sea and the absence of antiquark enhancement in heavy nuclei, are discussed by Garvey at this Conference. In this paper, we will focus on other areas of dilepton physics studied in these experiments. To follow the main theme of this Conference, we first discuss the status of various QCD tests using dilepton productions. We will then discuss the nuclear medium effects for dilepton productions. In particular, the relevance of the Fermilab experiments on the issue of parton energy loss in nuclei will be presented.

## QCD tests in Dilepton Production

In the “Naive” Drell-Yan model, the differential cross section is given as

$`M^3{\displaystyle \frac{d^2\sigma }{dMdx_F}}={\displaystyle \frac{8\pi \alpha ^2}{9}}{\displaystyle \frac{x_1x_2}{x_1+x_2}}\times {\displaystyle \underset{a}{}}e_a^2[q_a(x_1)\overline{q}_a(x_2)+\overline{q}_a(x_1)q_a(x_2)].`$ (1)   
Here $`q_a(x)`$ are the quark or antiquark structure functions of the two colliding hadrons evaluated at momentum fractions $`x_1`$ and $`x_2`$. The sum is over quark flavors. The Feynman-$`x`$ ($`x_F`$) is equal to $`x_1x_2`$.

Although the simple parton model originally proposed by Drell and Yan enjoyed considerable success in explaining many features of the early data, it was soon realized that QCD corrections to the parton model were required. Historically, two experimental features demanded theoretical improvement: first, the experimental cross section was about a factor of two larger than the parton-model value, and second, the distribution of dilepton transverse momenta extended to much larger values than are characteristic of the convolution of intrinsic parton momenta. We now discuss several consequences of QCD corrections to the DY observables.

### Absolute Cross Sections and $`p_T`$ Distribution

The inclusion of the NLO diagrams for the DY process brings excellent agreements between the calculations and the data. As an example, Figure 1 shows the NA3 data na3  at 400 GeV, together with the E605 e605  and E772 e772a  data at 800 GeV. The solid curve in Figure 1 corresponds to NLO calculation for 800 GeV $`p+d`$ ($`\sqrt{s}`$ = 38.9 GeV) and it describes the NA3/E605/E772 data well.

Berger et al. berger98  recently compared their NLO calculations with the E772 data. As shown in Figure 2, the $`p_T`$ distribution is well reproduced by the calculation. At $`p_T>2`$ GeV/c, the DY cross section is shown to be dominated by processes involving gluons. This suggests the interesting possibility of probing gluon density using large $`p_T`$ DY events.

### Scaling Violation

The right-hand side of Eq. (1) is only a function of $`x_1,x_2`$ and is independent of the beam energies. This scaling property no longer holds when QCD corrections to the DY are taken into account.

While logarithmic scaling violation is well established in DIS experiments, it is not well confirmed in DY experiments at all. No evidence for scaling violation is seen. As discussed in a recent review plm , there are mainly two reasons for this. First, unlike the DIS, the DY cross section is a convolution of two structure functions. Scaling violation implies that the structure functions rise for $`x0.1`$ and drop for $`x0.1`$ as $`Q^2`$ increases. For proton-induced DY, one often involves a beam quark with $`x_1>0.1`$ and a target antiquark with $`x_2<0.1`$. Hence the effects of scaling violation are partially cancelled. Second, unlike the DIS, the DY experiment can only probe relatively large $`Q^2`$, namely, $`Q^2>16`$ GeV<sup>2</sup> for a mass cut of 4 GeV. This makes it more difficult to observe the logarithmic variation of the structure functions in DY experiments.

Possible indications of scaling violation in DY process have been reported in two pion-induced experiments, E326 e326  at Fermilab and NA10 na10  at CERN. E326 collaboration compared their 225 GeV $`\pi ^{}+W`$ DY cross sections against calculations with and without scaling violation. They observed better agreement when scaling violation is included. This analysis is subject to the uncertainties associated with the pion structure functions, as well as the nuclear effects of the $`W`$ target. The NA10 collaboration measured $`\pi ^{}+W`$ DY cross sections at three beam energies, namely, 140, 194, and 286 GeV. By checking the ratios of the cross sections at three different energies, NA10 largely avoids the uncertainty of the pion structure functions. However, the relatively small span in $`\sqrt{s}`$, together with the complication of nuclear effects, make the NA10 result less than conclusive.

RHIC provides an interesting opportunity for unambiguously establishing scaling violation in the DY process. Figure 3 shows the predictions for $`p+d`$ at $`\sqrt{s}`$ = 500 GeV. The scaling-violation accounts for a factor of two drop in the DY cross sections when $`\sqrt{s}`$ is increased from 38.9 GeV to 500 GeV. It appears quite feasible to establish scaling violation in DY with future dilepton production experiments at RHIC.

### Decay Anugular Distributions

In the parton model, the angular distribution of dileptons is characteristic of the decay of a transversely polarized virtual photon,

$`{\displaystyle \frac{d\sigma }{d\mathrm{\Omega }}}=\sigma _0(1+\lambda cos^2\theta ),`$ (2)   
where $`\theta `$ is the polar angle of the lepton in the virtual photon rest frame and $`\lambda =1`$. Early experimental data from both pion and proton beams kenyon  were consistent with this form but had large statistical errors.

Recently, E772 has performed a high-statistics study of the angular distribution for DY events QM96  with masses above the $`\mathrm{{\rm Y}}`$ family of resonances. About 50,000 events were recorded from 800 GeV/c $`p+Cu`$ collisions, using a copper beam dump as the target. Figure 4 shows the acceptance-corrected angular distribution, integrated over the kinematic variables. Analyzed in the Collins-Soper reference frame collins , the data yield $`\lambda =0.96\pm 0.04\pm 0.06`$(systematic).

Including higher-order QCD corrections to the DY process oakes ; collinsa  results in the more complicated form of the angular distribution,

$`{\displaystyle \frac{d\sigma }{d\mathrm{\Omega }}}1+\lambda cos^2\theta +\mu sin2\theta cos\varphi +{\displaystyle \frac{\nu }{2}}sin^2\theta cos2\varphi ,`$ (3)   
where $`\varphi `$ is the azimuthal angle and $`\lambda `$, $`\mu `$, and $`\nu `$ are angle-independent parameters. NLO calculations predict chiappetta  small deviations from $`1+cos^2\theta `$ ($`5\%`$) for $`p_t`$ below 3 GeV/c. The relevant scaling parameter for the magnitude of these deviations is $`p_t/Q`$, implying that NLO corrections become important when $`p_tQ`$. A relation, $`1\lambda 2\nu =0`$, developed by Lam & Tung lam , is analogous to the Callan-Gross relation in DIS. Measurements with pion beams at CERN NA10angdist  and at Fermilab E615a  have shown that the Lam-Tung relation is clearly violated at large $`p_t`$.

Pion-induced DY experiments have unexpectedly shown that transverse photon polarization changes to longitudinal ($`\lambda 1`$) at large $`x_F`$ NA10angdist ; E615a ; NA3angdist ; E615 . The $`x_F`$ dependence of $`\lambda `$ is qualitatively consistent with a higher-twist model originally proposed by Berger & Brodsky berger ; bergera . However, the quantitative agreement is poor. The model’s basis can be described as follows. As $`x_F`$ of the muon pair approaches unity, the Bjorken-$`x`$ (momentum fraction) of the annihilating projectile parton must also be near unity. Thus, the whole pion contributes to the DY process. This can be treated with perturbation theory, with the result that the transverse polarization of the virtual photon becomes longitudinal. The angular distribution at large $`x_F`$ becomes

$`{\displaystyle \frac{d\sigma }{d\mathrm{\Omega }}}(1x)^2(1+\lambda cos^2\theta )+\alpha sin^2\theta ,`$ (4)   
where $`\alpha `$ is $``$ $`p_t^2/Q^2`$.

Eskola et al eskola  have shown that an improved treatment of the effects of nonasymptotic kinematics greatly improves quantitative agreement with the $`\lambda `$ values from the pion data. Brandenburg et al brandenburg  have extended the higher twist model to specifically include pion bound-state effects. They predict values for $`\lambda `$, $`\mu `$ and $`\nu `$ that are in good agreement with the pion data at large $`x_F`$. Unfortunately, the results are quite sensitive to the choice of the pion Fock state wave functions, which are not well constrained by experimental data.

## Nuclear Medium Effects of Dilepton Production

From a high-statistics measurement of dilepton production in 800 GeV proton-nucleus interaction, the target-mass dependence of DY, $`J/\mathrm{\Psi }`$, $`\mathrm{\Psi }^{}`$, and $`\mathrm{{\rm Y}}`$ productions have been determined in E772 e772b ; e772c ; e772d . As shown in Figure 5, different nuclear dependences are observed for different dilepton processes. While the DY process shows almost no nuclear dependence, pronounced nuclear effects are seen for the production of heavy quarkonium states. E772 found that $`J/\mathrm{\Psi }`$ and $`\mathrm{\Psi }^{}`$ have similar nuclear dependence. The nuclear dependences for $`\mathrm{{\rm Y}}`$, $`\mathrm{{\rm Y}}^{}`$ and $`\mathrm{{\rm Y}}^{\prime \prime }`$ are less than that observed for the $`J/\mathrm{\Psi }`$ and $`\mathrm{\Psi }^{}`$. Within statistics, the various $`\mathrm{{\rm Y}}`$ resonances also have very similar nuclear dependences.

Although the integrated DY yields in E772 show little nuclear dependence, it is instructive to examine the DY nuclear dependences on various kinematic variables. Using the simple $`A^\alpha `$ expression to fit the DY nuclear dependence, the values of $`\alpha `$ are shown in Figure 6 as a function of $`x_T(x_2)`$, $`M`$, $`x_F`$, and $`p_t`$. Several features are observed:

1. A suppression of the DY yields from heavy nuclear targets is seen at small $`x_2`$. This is consistent with the shadowing effect observed in DIS. In fact, E772 provides the only experimental evidence for shadowing in hadronic reactions. The reach of small $`x_2`$ in E772 is limited by the mass cut ($`M4`$ GeV) and by the relatively small center-of-mass energy (recall that $`x_1x_2=M^2/s`$). p-A collisions at RHIC clearly offer the exciting opportunity to extend the study of shadowing to much smaller $`x`$.
2. $`\alpha (x_F)`$ shows an interesting trend, namely, it decreases as $`x_F`$ increases. It is tempting to attribute this behavior to initial-state energy-loss effect. However, there is a strong correlation between $`x_F`$ and $`x_2`$ ($`x_F=x_1x_2`$), and it is essential to separate the $`x_F`$ energy-loss effect from the $`x_2`$ shadowing effect. Figure 7 shows $`\alpha `$ versus $`x_F`$ for two bins of $`x_2`$, one in the shadowing region ($`x_20.075`$) and one outside of it ($`x_20.075`$). There is no discernible $`x_F`$ dependence for $`\alpha `$ once one stays outside of the shadowing region. Therefore, the apparent suppression at large $`x_F`$ in Figure 6 reflects the shadowing effect at small $`x_2`$ rather than the energy-loss effect.
3. $`\alpha (p_t)`$ shows an enhancement at large $`p_t`$. This is reminiscent of the Cronin Effect cronin  where the broadening in $`p_t`$ distribution is attributed to multiple parton-nucleon scatterings. It is instructive to compare the $`p_t`$ broadening for DY process and quarkonium production. Figure 8 shows $`\mathrm{\Delta }p_t^2`$, the difference of mean $`p_t^2`$ between p-A and p-D interactions, as a function of A for DY, J/$`\mathrm{\Psi }`$, and $`\mathrm{{\rm Y}}(1S)`$ productions at 800 GeV. The DY and $`\mathrm{{\rm Y}}`$ data are from E772 e772e , while the $`J/\mathrm{\Psi }`$ results are from E789 e789 , E771 e771 , and preliminary E866 analysis leitch . More details on this analysis will be presented elsewhere e772e . Figure 8 shows that $`p_t^2`$ is well described by the simple expression $`a+bA^{1/3}`$. It also shows that the $`p_t`$ broadening for $`J/\mathrm{\Psi }`$ is very similar to $`\mathrm{{\rm Y}}`$, but significantly larger (by a factor of 5) than the DY. A factor of 9/4 could be attributed to the color factor of the initial gluon in the quarkonium production versus the quark in the DY process. The remaining difference could come from the final-state multiple scattering effect which is absent in the DY process.

Baier et al. baier1  have recently derived a relationship between the partonic energy-loss due to gluon bremsstrahlung and the mean $`p_t^2`$ broadening accumulated via multiple parton-nucleon scattering:

$`dE/dz={\displaystyle \frac{3}{4}}\alpha _s\mathrm{\Delta }p_t^2.`$ (5)   
This non-intuitive result states that the total energy loss is proportional to square of the path length traversed by the incident partons. From Figure 8 and Eq. 5, we deduce that the mean total energy loss, $`\mathrm{\Delta }E`$, for the p+W DY process is $`0.6`$ GeV. Such an energy-loss is too small to cause any discernible effect in the $`x_F`$ (or $`x_1`$) nuclear dependence. As shown in Figure 7, the dashed curve corresponds to $`\mathrm{\Delta }E=2.0\pm 1.7`$ GeV (for p+W), and the E772 data are consistent with Eq. 5. A much more sensitive test for Eq. 5 could be done at RHIC, where the energy-loss effect is expected to be much enhanced in A-A collision baier2 .