Impact of dijet and D-meson data from 5.02 TeV p+Pb collisions on nuclear PDFs

Abstract We discuss the new constraints on gluon parton distribution function (PDF) in lead nucleus, derivable with the Hessian PDF reweighting method from the 5.02 TeV p+Pb measurements of dijet (CMS) and D0-meson (LHCb) nuclear modification ratios. The impact is found to be significant, placing stringent constraints in the mid- and previously unconstrained small-x regions. The CMS dijet data confirm the existence of gluon anti-shadowing and the onset of small-x shadowing, as well as reduce the gluon PDF uncertainties in the larger-x region. The gluon constraints from the LHCb D0 data, reaching down to x ∼ 10−5 and derived in a NLO perturbative QCD approach, provide a remarkable reduction of the small-x uncertainties with a strong direct evidence of gluon shadowing. Furthermore, we find a good description of the data even down to zero D0-meson transverse momentum within a purely DGLAP-based approach without a need for imposing any non-linear effects. Importantly, the constraints obtained from the dijet and D0 data are mutually fully consistent, supporting the universality of nuclear PDFs in hard-scattering processes.