Exploring SMEFT Couplings Using the Forward-Backward Asymmetry in Neutral Current Drell-Yan Production at the LHC

• Hamed Abdolmaleki (IPM & Malayer University)

Neutral current Drell-Yan (DY) lepton-pair production is considered in the framework of the Standard Model Effective Field Theory (SMEFT). Using the open-source fit platform xFitter, we investigate the impact of high-statistics measurements of the neutral current DY (NCDY) forward-backward asymmetry AFB near the weak boson mass scale in the present and forthcoming stages of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). Besides recovering earlier results on the AFB sensitivity to parton distribution functions, we analyze the precision determination of Z-boson couplings to left-handed and right-handed u-quarks and d-quarks, and explore Beyond-Standard-Model contributions using the SMEFT framework. We comment on the role of the AFB asymmetry for the electroweak SMEFT fit and precision Z-boson physics at the LHC and high-luminosity HL-LHC.