Study of <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><mml:mi>Z</mml:mi></mml:math> Bosons Produced in Association with Charm in the Forward Region
R. Aaij, A. S. W. Abdelmotteleb, C. Abellán Beteta, F. J. Abudinen Gallego, T. Ackernley, B. Adeva, M. Adinolfi, H. Afsharnia, C. Agapopoulou, C. A. Aidala, S. Aiola, Z. Ajaltouni, S. Akar, J. Albrecht, F. Alessio, M. Alexander, A. Alfonso Albero, Z. Aliouche, G. Alkhazov, P. Alvarez Cartelle, S. Amato, J. L. Amey, Y. Amhis, L. An, L. Anderlini, A. Andreianov, M. Andreotti, F. Archilli, A. Artamonov, M. Artuso, K. Arzymatov, E. Aslanides, M. Atzeni, B. Audurier, S. Bachmann, M. Bachmayer, J. J. Back, P. Baladron Rodriguez, V. Balagura, W. Baldini, J. Baptista Leite, M. Barbetti, R. J. Barlow, S. Barsuk, W. Barter, M. Bartolini, F. Baryshnikov, J. M. Basels, S. Bashir, G. Bassi, B. Batsukh, A. Battig, A. Bay, A. Beck, M. Becker, F. Bedeschi, I. Bediaga, A. Beiter, V. Belavin, S. Belin, V. Bellee, K. Belous, I. Belov, I. Belyaev, G. Bencivenni, E. Ben-Haim, A. Berezhnoy, R. Bernet, D. Berninghoff, H. C. Bernstein, C. Bertella, A. Bertolin, C. Betancourt, F. Betti, Ia. Bezshyiko, S. Bhasin, J. Bhom, L. Bian, M. S. Bieker, S. Bifani, P. Billoir, M. Birch, F. C. R. Bishop, A. Bitadze, A. Bizzeti, M. Bjørn, M. P. Blago, T. Blake, F. Blanc, S. Blusk, D. Bobulska, J. A. Boelhauve, O. Boente Garcia, T. Boettcher, A. Boldyrev, A. Bondar, N. Bondar, S. Borghi, M. Borisyak, M. Borsato
Abstract
Events containing a $Z$ boson and a charm jet are studied for the first time in the forward region of proton-proton collisions. The data sample used corresponds to an integrated luminosity of $6\text{ }\text{ }{\mathrm{fb}}^{\ensuremath{-}1}$ collected at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV with the LHCb detector. In events with a $Z$ boson and a jet, the fraction of charm jets is determined in intervals of $Z$-boson rapidity in the range $2.0<y(Z)<4.5$. A sizable enhancement is observed in the forwardmost $y(Z)$ interval, which could be indicative of a valencelike intrinsic-charm component in the proton wave function.