${\rm Y}$ electroproduction at HERA, EIC, and LHeC within the nonrelativistic QCD framework

Abstract

Based on the nonrelativistic QCD framework, we study the ${\rm Y}$ production in semi-inclusive deep inelastic electron-proton scattering (SIDIS) at HERA, EIC, and LHeC, with the main aim of assessing the viability of observing ${\rm Y}$ electroproduction at the three colliders. The color-octet (CO) contributions are found to have a crucial effect on both the integrated and differential cross sections, serving to further establish the significance of the CO mechanism. By setting the kinematic cuts to $p_{t,{\rm Y}}^{\star 2}>1{\text{GeV}}^2$, $W>50$ GeV, $2<Q^2<100{\text{GeV}}^2$, and $0.3<z<0.9$, only a few electroproduced ${\rm Y}$ events can be generated at HERA, partially accounting for its lack of measured ${\rm Y}$ electroproduction. However, under the same cut conditions, the EIC and LHeC can accumulate about $8.7\times 10^2$ and $3.7\times 10^4$ reconstructed ${\rm Y}$ events in one operation year, respectively, which manifestly indicates the prospect of detecting the ${\rm Y}$-related SIDIS processes at the two forthcoming $ep(eA)$ colliders.

Comments: 14 pages, 3 tables, and 4 figures; references added, one funding source added in the acknowledgements, accepted for publication in Physical Review D