The compatibility of neutrino-nucleus deep inelastic scattering data within the universal, factorizable nuclear parton distribution functions has been studied independently by several groups in the past few years. The conclusions are contradictory, ranging from a violation of the universality up to a good agreement, most of the controversy originating from the use of the neutrino-nucleus data from the NuTeV Collaboration. Here, we pay attention to non-negligible differences in the absolute normalization between different neutrino data sets. We find that such variations are large enough to prevent a tensionless fit to all data simultaneously and could therefore misleadingly point towards nonuniversal nuclear effects. We propose a concrete method to deal with the absolute normalization and show that an agreement between independent neutrino data sets is established.
We analyse the role of partonic transverse motion in unpolarized Semi-Inclusive Deep Inelastic Scattering (SIDIS) processes. Imposing appropriate kinematical conditions, we find some constraints which fix an upper limit to the range of allowed k_perp values. We show that, applying these additional requirements on the partonic kinematics, we obtain different results with respect to the usual phenomenological approach based on the Gaussian smearing with analytical integration over an unlimited range of k_perp values. These variations are particularly interesting for some observables, like the < …
We present a quantitative assessment of the impact a future Electron-Ion Collider would have in the determination of parton distribution functions in the proton and parton-to-hadron fragmentation functions through semi-inclusive deep-inelastic electron-proton scattering data. Specifically, we estimate the kinematic configurations for which the forthcoming data are expected to have the most significant impact in the precision of these distributions, computing the respective correlation and sensitivity coefficients. Implementing the reweighting technique over sets of simulated data with realisti…
We report on our recent observation that the occurrence of diffractive patterns in the scattering of electrons off nuclei obeys the same law as the fluctuations of the height of genealogical trees in branching diffusion processes.
Helicity-dependent parton distribution functions at next-to-next-to-leading order accuracy from inclusive and semi-inclusive deep-inelastic scattering data
We calculate $g_{1T}$ and $h_{1L}^\perp$, two of the eight leading twist transverse momentum dependent parton distributions (TMDs), in the light-cone quark-diquark model. The new TMDs can be measured through semi-inclusive deep inelastic scattering (SIDIS). We present predictions of the single and double spin asymmetries related to $g_{1T}$ and $h_{1L}^\perp$ in SIDIS at HERMES, COMPASS, and JLab kinematics respectively.
We study the effect of parton angular momentum on the twist-four correction to the left-right asymmetry in the electron-deuteron parity-violating deep inelastic scattering (PVDIS). We show that this higher-twist correction is transparent to the dynamics of parton angular momentum needed to account for the Sivers and Boer-Mulders functions and spin-independent parton distribution functions. A sufficiently precise measurement of the PVDIS asymmetry may, thus, provide additional information about the parton dynamics responsible for nucleon spin.
We analyse the role of partonic transverse motion in unpolarized Semi-Inclusive Deep Inelastic Scattering (SIDIS) processes. Imposing appropriate kinematical conditions, we find some constraints which fix an upper limit to the range of allowed kt values and lead to interesting results, particularly for some observables like the <cos phi_h> azimuthal modulation of the unpolarized SIDIS cross section and the average transverse momentum of the final, detected hadron.
Recent results on cross sections sensitive to the parton distribution functions (PDFs) within the proton from the ATLAS and CMS Collaborations are presented. The potential impact on the inclusion of these data in fits to the PDFs is discussed. Recent results from fits including the data from jet, or vector boson production from the ATLAS and CMS experiments are discussed.
We present an extraction of unpolarized partonic transverse momentum distributions (TMDs) from a simultaneous fit of available data measured in semi-inclusive deep-inelastic scattering, Drell-Yan and Z-boson production. To connect data at different scales, we use TMD evolution at next-to-leading logarithmic accuracy. The analysis is restricted to the low-transverse-momentum region, with no matching to fixed-order calculations at high transverse momentum. We introduce specific choices to deal with TMD evolution at low scales, of the order of 1 GeV$^2$. This could be considered as a first attemp…
Collinear and transverse momentum dependent (TMD) parton densities are obtained from fits to precision measurements of deep inelastic scattering (DIS) cross sections at HERA. The parton densities are evolved by DGLAP evolution with next-to-leading-order (NLO) splitting functions using the parton branching method, allowing one to determine simultaneously collinear and TMD densities for all flavors over a wide range in $x$, $μ^2$ and $k_t$, relevant for predictions at the LHC. The DIS cross section is computed from the parton densities using perturbative NLO coefficient functions. Parton densiti…
Intrinsic transverse parton momenta pT play an important role in the understanding of azimuthal/spin asymmetries in semi-inclusive deep-inelastic scattering (SIDIS) and the Drell-Yan process (DY). We review and update what is presently known about pT from these processes. In particular, we address the question to which extent data support the popular Gauss model for the pT-distributions. We find that the Gauss model works very well, and observe that the intrinsic transverse momenta in SIDIS and DY are compatible, which is a support for the factorization approach. As a byproduct we recover a si…
This paper gives a summary of selected highlights discussed in the working group on "Structure Functions and Parton Densities" (WG1) at the DIS 2017 conference. From the many talks presented we extract some general themes discussed with respect to global PDF fits, new PDF-sensitive measurements from the LHC experiments and elsewhere, exploitation of new ideas, tools to perform PDF fits, PDFs of heavy nuclei, and finally progress in basic theory calculations.
Hard processes in diffractive deep-inelastic scattering can be described by a factorisation into parton-level subprocesses and diffractive parton distributions. In this framework, cross sections for inclusive dijet production in diffractive deep-inelastic electron-proton scattering (DIS) are computed to next-to-next-to-leading order (NNLO) QCD accuracy and compared to a comprehensive selection of data. Predictions for the total cross sections, 39 single-differential and four double-differential distributions for six measurements at HERA by the H1 and ZEUS collaborations are calculated. In the …
We present a first attempt at a global fit of unpolarized quark transverse momentum dependent distribution and fragmentation functions from available data on semi-inclusive deep-inelastic scattering, Drell-Yan and $Z$ boson production processes. This analysis is performed in the low transverse momentum region, at leading order in perturbative QCD and with the inclusion of energy scale evolution effects at the next-to-leading logarithmic accuracy.
We report on recent determinations of NNLO parton distributions and of $α_s(M_Z)$ based on the world deep-inelastic data, supplemented by collider data. Some applications are discussed for semi-inclusive processes at the LHC.
We investigated the energy dependence of the parton-parton inelastic cross sections, parton- parton inelastic overlap functions and the Cq moments in proton interactions from 10 to 14000 GeV. The used approach is based on a phenomenological procedure where elastic and inelastic proton observables are described in a connected way by exploring the unitarity of S- Matrix. Applying a Quantum Chromodynamics inspired eikonal model, that contains contributions of the quark-quark, quark-gluon and gluon-gluon interactions, theoretical predictions on inelastic cross sections and Cq moments are compared …
We discuss many new subleading processes for inclusive production of $W^+ W^-$ pairs not included in the literature so far. We focus on photon-photon induced processes. We include elastic-elastic, elastic-inelastic, inelastic-elastic and inelastic-inelastic contributions. The inelastic photon distributions in the proton are calculated in two different ways: naive approach used already in the literature and using photon distributions by solving special evolution equation with photon being a parton in the proton. The results strongly depend on the approach used. We calculate also contributions w…
We present preliminary results for fits of parton distribution functions (PDFs) which include the resummation of small-$x$ logarithms at NLLx accuracy, performed in the NNPDF framework. We observe an improvement in the description of DIS data at small values of Bjorken $x$ when resummation effects are included. The improvement is more marked when comparing NNLO+NLLx fits to NNLO ones, and is particularly noticeable for small-$x$ and small-$Q^2$ HERA inclusive structure functions. The main effect of the resummation is an enhancement of the gluon and singlet PDFs at small-$x$, which persists at …
We present a new software package designed to reduce the computational burden of hadron collider measurements in Parton Distribution Function (PDF) fits. The APFELgrid package converts interpolated weight tables provided by APPLgrid files into a more efficient format for PDF fitting by the combination with PDF and $α_s$ evolution factors provided by APFEL. This combination significantly reduces the number of operations required to perform the calculation of hadronic observables in PDF fits and simplifies the structure of the calculation into a readily optimised scalar product. We demonstrate t…
In this talk we discuss recent results on the impact of LHC jet data on global fits of parton distribution functions using theoretical predictions at NNLO in QCD supplemented by electroweak (EW) corrections.