Electroweak probes in heavy-ion collisions at the LHC with ATLAS

Measurements of vector boson production in Pb+Pb collisions provide essential control data for studies of jets and jet quenching in the quark gluon plasma. Because the electroweak bosons do not interact strongly in the plasma measurements of their production rates can be predicted using standard high-energy event generators. In addition, the vector boson spectra are potentially sensitive to nuclear parton distribution functions. Results will be presented for measurements of photon, Z, and W+/- production in Pb+Pb and proton-Pb collisions. The measurements will be compared to predicted rates from JETPHOX (for photons) and POWHEG (for Z and W).