Measurement of W boson production in Pb+Pb collisions at 5.02 TeV with the ATLAS detector

The $W$ boson is a short lived particle which does not interact strongly. Thus its production rate measured in lepton decay channels can be compared between lead-lead and proton-proton collisions as a direct test of both binary collision scaling and the possible modification of parton distribution functions due to nuclear effects (nPDF). In Run 2 the ATLAS experiment has recorded 0.49 nb$^{-1}$ of lead-lead collision data at the center-of-mass energy of 5.02 TeV. The available $W$ boson sample is increased by a factor of eight relative to the Run 1 data sample collected at 2.76 TeV. This study presents $W^+$ and $W^-$ boson production yields measured differentially in lepton pseudorapidity and as a function of centrality.