QCD corrections to forward-backward charge asymmetries in l - l+ j production at hadron colliders

Abstract

The large cross sections for gauge boson production at the Fermilab Tevatron and the CERN Large Hadron Collider (LHC) might give a chance to determine the electroweak parameters with high precision. We calculated two different forward-backward charge asymmetries (A CS FB and A j FB) of lepton pairs in events with a large transverse momentum jet p ¯ p( ) Z g j e e j at nextto- leading order (NLO), as corrections, making use of the Monte Carlo programs MCFM [1] and ALPGEN [2]. These observables could provide a new determination of the weak mixing angle sin2q lept eff M2 Z with a statistical precision for each lepton avour of 10 3 7 10 3 at LHC (Tevatron). If b jets are identi ed, a new asymmetry with respect to the b quark (Ab FB) can also be measured with a statistical precision of 2 10 3 4 10 2 at LHC (Tevatron). Finally, we comment on the dependence of our results on various sources of uncertainties and compare, in the case of Ab FB, the exact result with an approximation that might be more suitable when performing a realistic experimental analysis.