Measurement of the Drell-Yan process in forward direction at \sqrt{s} =8 TeV

"LHCb has an exciting programme of physics measuring electroweak boson production in the forward region. These measurements can be used to constrain our knowledge of the inner structure of the proton, as quantified by parton distribution functions (PDFs). These functions influence the predictions of any physics process at the LHC, and are not necessarily well constrained by existing measurements. LHCb's unique precision coverage of the forward region means that measurements here are complementary to those at ATLAS and CMS, providing different and important constraints on the PDFs. Existing measurements by the LHCb experiment have already had an important impact on PDFs, reducing the uncertainty on the PDFs by up to a factor of two. The Summer student will work on extending these measurements. The student will work on measuring the Drell-Yan process ($pp->Z/\gamma*->\mu\mu$) at invariant masses of the dimuon system in the range 60 - \unit{120}{\GeV}, using data collected by the LHCb experiment in 2012. The student will benefit from collaborating with others at LHCb studying similar processes (for example, the Drell-Yan process below the Z boson mass). Depending on the precision achieved, this work could potentially form a significant fraction of a forthcoming paper. This work should also be documented in a note that is made available to the rest of the LHCb collaboration."