Drell-Yan physics

The proton is a complex composite object. Its structure, the
dynamics of its constituents and its mass presently cannot be
calculated from Quantum Chromo Dynamics without simplifying
model assumptions. Momentum- and spin-dependent distributions
of quarks and gluons have been determined with increasing
precision through 50 years of deep inelastic lepton-proton
scattering experiments and the QCD analysis of 30 years of high
energy proton-proton collider data. Despite this significant
effort, there remain important shortcomings in the knowledge of
proton structure.

The Drell-Yan process is a well-understood electromagnetic
effect in which a beam-hadron quark/anti-quark annihilates with
a target hadron anti-quark/quark. It is well suited to explore
the sea quark structure of the proton, transverse momentum- and
spin-dependent quark distributions (TMDs) and nuclear effects
in proton quark structure. The seminar will briefly review the
present knowledge of proton structure, introduce the Drell-Yan
process and review current and future Drell-Yan experiments at
CERN, FAIR, FNAL, J-PARC, NICA and RHIC, that aim to constrain
TMDs, sea-quarks and nuclear effects. A focus of the talk will
be future plans for Drell-Yan experiments with high-intensity
meson and anti-proton beams at the CERN SPS.