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Constraining the Proton Strange-Quark PDF from W+Charm and SIDIS Data

How adding LHC W+charm production and semi-inclusive kaon/pion deep-inelastic-scattering data to a global QCD fit sharpens knowledge of the proton's strange-quark distribution. Students learn how these strangeness-sensitive processes reduce the uncertainty on the strange PDF over 0.01<x<0.3, constrain the strange-to-nonstrange sea ratio, and show the strange asymmetry s-sbar to be consistent with zero in that range.

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Strangeness in the proton from W+charm production and SIDIS data

We perform a global QCD analysis of unpolarized parton distribution functions (PDFs) in the proton, including new $W +$\,charm production data from $pp$ collisions at the LHC and semi-inclusive pion …