Constraints on the Gluon Density from Lepton Pair Production

Abstract

The hadroproduction of lepton pairs with mass Q and finite transverse momentum Q_T is described in perturbative QCD by the same partonic subprocesses as prompt photon production. We demonstrate that, like prompt photon production, lepton pair production is dominated by quark-gluon scattering in the region Q_T>Q/2. This feature leads to sensitivity to the gluon density in kinematical regimes accessible in collider and fixed target experiments, and it provides a new independent method for constraining the gluon density.

Comments: 5 pages, 7 figures, to appear in the Proceedings of the Fermilab Physics at Run II Workshop on ``QCD and Weak Boson Physics'