Measurement of the Charge Asymmetry of W Bosons Produced in pp Collisions at $\sqrt{s}$ = 7 TeV with the ATLAS Detector

This dissertation presents a measurement of the muon charge asymmetry from W bosons produced in proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 7 TeV. The asymmetry provides information about the momentum fraction of the proton carried by the partons participating in W production, particularly the u and d quarks. It therefore helps understand predictions for the parton distribution functions (PDF) in the colliding protons in a new kinematic regime. W candidate events are selected in the W->munu decay mode and the asymmetry is measured as a function of the decay muon pseudorapidity. The data were recorded by the ATLAS detector in 2010 and correspond to 31 pb-1 of integrated luminosity. The measurement is compared to theoretical predictions based on next-to-leading order QCD calculations and a range of PDF sets. The input of the measurement for the determination of the next generation of PDF sets is expected to bring the different predictions closer together and aid in reducing the uncertainties. This contributes to improving LHC predictions that rely on precise knowledge of the proton PDFs.