Machine Learning and the Drell-Yan Cross-Section Ratios at E906 SeaQuest

Multivariate analysis has successfully been employed at high and medium energy experiments, especially for the detection of rare events, and is being utilized now by SeaQuest. The E906 SeaQuest spectrometer measures muons produced from the Fermilab 120 GeV proton Main Injector beam incident on liquid Hydrogen, Deuterium and solid C, Fe and W targets. Utilizing coincident muon pairs, SeaQuest is sensitive to the Drell-Yan process and thus acts as a probe into nucleon structure, in particular the flavor asymmetry in the nucleon sea. This is explored by developing cross-section ratios of the targets, but corrections are needed for yields of background processes. This talk will focus on how the cross-section ratio of the  targets is derived, including identification and subtraction of backgrounds comparing machine learning and other methods.