Measurement of the Strange Quark Distribution Function in W + Charm Quark Events

Abstract

We investigate the prospects of measuring the strange quark distribution function at the Tevatron, using $W$ plus charm quark events. The $W$ plus charm quark signal produced by strange quark--gluon fusion, $sg\to W^{-}c$ and $\bar{s}g\to W^{+}\bar{c}$, is approximately 5\% of the inclusive $W+1$ jet cross section for jets with a transverse momentum $p_T(j)>10$~GeV. We study the sensitivity of the $W$ plus charm quark cross section to the parametrization of the strange quark distribution function, and evaluate the various background processes. Strategies to identify charm quarks in CDF and D$0\text{/}$ are briefly described.

Comments: Latex, 9 pages + 2 postscript figures encoded with uufile, FSU-HEP-930608, MAD/TH/93/4, MAD/PH/769. A postscript file with text and embedded figures is available via anonymous ftp at hepsg1.physics.fsu.edu, file is /pub/keller/fsu-hep-930608.ps