https://doi.org/10.1051/epjconf/201715803009
Z-boson production in association with heavy flavor in the kT-factorization
1 Skobeltsyn Institute of Nuclear Physics, Moscow State University, 119991 Moscow, Russia
2 P.N. Lebedev Physics Institute, 119991 Moscow, Russia
3 Joint Institute for Nuclear Research, Dubna 141980, Moscow region, Russia
* e-mail: malyshev@theory.sinp.msu.ru
** e-mail: baranov@sci.lebedev.ru
*** e-mail: lipatov@theory.sinp.msu.ru
Published online: 24 October 2017
We present the calculations of associated production of Z bosons and heavy (charm or beauty) quarks at the LHC energies in the framework of kT -factorization QCD approach. Our consideration is mainly based on the 
off-shell gluon-gluon fusion subprocess 
where produced Z boson subsequently decays into a lepton pair. Several subleading contributions from the 
and 
subprocesses are taken into account. Contributions from the double parton scattering mechanism are estimated. The transverse momentum dependent (or unintegrated) gluon densities in a proton are determined using the Catani-Ciafaloni-Fiorani-Marchesini evolution equation. We achieve reasonably good agreement of our predictions and latest experimental data taken by the CMS and ATLAS Collaborations, discuss the theoretical uncertainties of our calculations and demonstrate the importance of subleading quark contributions in description of the LHC data in the whole kinematical region.
© The authors, published by EDP Sciences, 2017
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
