Measurement of neutral current Drell-Yan production at 8 TeV with the ATLAS detector

Neutral current Drell-Yan production, $q\bar{q} \rightarrow Z/\gamma^* \rightarrow e^-e^+$, in proton-proton collisions at the LHC was studied with the ATLAS detector. The 20.1 fb$^{-1}$ data set used in this precision measurement was collected in 2012 during which the LHC collided protons at a centre-of-mass energy of 8 TeV. The production rate or differential cross-section was measured in three-dimensions: invariant mass $M_{ee}$, absolute rapidity $|y_{ee}|$, and cosine of the polar angle $\theta^*$ in the Collins-Soper frame. A measurement of the forward-backward asymmetry $A_{\rm FB}$ was obtained from the differential cross-section by summing over the $\cos\theta^* > 0$ (forward) and the $\cos\theta^* < 0$ (backward) events and taking their difference. The three-dimensional differential cross-section measurement presented in this dissertation can be used to constrain the $M_{ee}$- and $|y_{ee}|$-dependent parton distribution functions of the proton and the $A_{\rm FB}$ results can be used to extract a measurement of the weak mixing angle $\theta_{\rm W}$.