The Charge Asymmetry in W Bosons Produced in Proton-Antiproton Collisions at Center-of-Mass Energy 1.96 TeV

The primary mode of production of W+ bosons in a proton-antiproton collider is u + anti-d -> W+. The u quark generally carries more momentum than the anti-d and the resultant W+ tends to be boosted in the proton direction. Similarly, W- bosons are boosted in the anti-proton direction. This is observed as an asymmetry in the rapidity distributions of positive and negative W bosons. Measurement of this asymmetry serves as a probe of the momentum distribution of partons within the proton. These distributions are required as input to the calculation of every proton-antiproton production cross section. This thesis presents the first measurement at DZero of the charge asymmetry of the W boson production cross section as measured in W -> electron + neutrino decays in 0.3 fb^-1 of proton-antiproton collisions collected with the DZero Detector. Theoretical predictions made using the CTEQ6.1M and MRST(2004) parton distribution functions are compared with the measurement.