Measurement of Quark Energy Loss in Cold Nuclear Matter at Fermilab E906/SeaQuest

Parton energy loss is a process within QCD that draws considerable interest. The measurement of parton energy loss can provide valuable information for other hard-scattering processes in nuclei, and also serves as an important tool for exploring the properties of the quark-gluon plasma (QGP). Quantifying the energy loss in cold nuclear matter will help to set a baseline relative to energy loss in the QGP. With the Drell-Yan process, the energy loss of incoming quarks in cold nuclear matter can be ideally investigated since the final state interaction is expected to be minimal. E906/SeaQuest is a fixed-target experiment using the 120 GeV proton beam from the Fermilab Main Injector and has been collecting data from p+p, p+d, p+C, p+Fe, and p+W collisions. Within the E906 kinematic coverage of Drell-Yan production via the dimuon channel, the quark energy loss can be measured in a regime where other nuclear effects are expected to be small. In this thesis, the study of quark energy loss from different cold nuclear targets is presented