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Photoproduction of Drell-Yan lepton pairs

Journal Article · · Phys. Rev., D; (United States)
We investigate the Drell-Yan reaction ..gamma..p ..-->.. (..mu../sup +/..mu../sup -/) X with an eye to experimental determination of the photon structure functions. Contributions to the process from both the nonhadronic anomaly and the vector-dominance piece are estimated: we find that the cross section from the anomaly dominates the vector-dominance contribution at large Q/sup 2/. The background from Bethe-Heitler pairs is also calculated; it is somewhat suppressed by going to y=0, and further suppressed relative to the Drell-Yan contribution for fixed Q/sup 2/ by looking at high center-of-mass energies and at small Q/sub perpendicular/ for the pair. Overall we find that the absolute Drell-Yan cross sections in the regions of interest are very small; experimental study of the process will be difficult.
Research Organization:
Physics Department, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois 61801
OSTI ID:
5842204
Journal Information:
Phys. Rev., D; (United States), Journal Name: Phys. Rev., D; (United States) Vol. 20:11; ISSN PRVDA
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English