Impact of LHC vector boson production in heavy ion collisions on strange PDFs
A. Kusina, T. Ježo, D. B. Clark, P. Duwentäster, E. Godat, T. J. Hobbs, J. Kent, M. Klasen, K. Kovařík, F. Lyonnet, K. F. Muzakka, F. I. Olness, I. Schienbein, J. Y. Yu
The extraction of the strange quark parton distribution function (PDF) poses a long-standing puzzle. Measurements from neutrino-nucleus deep inelastic scattering (DIS) experiments suggest the strange quark is suppressed compared to the light sea quarks, while recent studies of W/Z boson production at the LHC imply a larger strange component at small x values. As the parton flavor determination in the proton depends on nuclear corrections, e.g. from heavy-target DIS, LHC heavy ion measurements can provide a distinct perspective to help clarify this situation. In this investigation we extend the nCTEQ15 nPDFs to study the impact of the LHC proton-lead W/Z production data on both the flavor differentiation and nuclear corrections. This complementary data set provides new insights on both the LHC W/Z proton analyses and the neutrino-nucleus DIS data. We identify these new nPDFs as nCTEQ15WZ. Our calculations are performed using a new implementation of the nCTEQ code (nCTEQ++) based on C++ which enables us to easily interface to external programs such as HOPPET, APPLgrid and MCFM. Our results indicate that, as suggested by the proton data, the small x nuclear strange sea appears larger than previously expected, even when the normalization of the W/Z data is accommodated in the fit. Extending the nCTEQ15 analysis to include LHC W/Z data represents an important step as we advance toward the next generation of nPDFs.
I present results on continuing updates in PDFs within the framework now called MMHT14 due to both theory improvements and the inclusion of new data sets, including most of the up-to-date LHC data. A new set of PDFs is essentially finalised, with no changes expected to the PDFs presented here.
Nuclear parton distribution functions (nuclear PDFs), collinearly factorizable in perturbative QCD (pQCD), are currently extracted most reliably from global analyses of experimental data. Recently, the progress in this field has been driven mainly by the new data from LHC proton-lead collisions. I will review the progress in using data from LHC Run 1 and 2 and also hint at some opportunities and challenges that we face during LHC Run 3.
The LHC heavy ion data for W/Z production can provide new incisive information on the PDFs. This data is sensitive to the heavier quark flavors (strange and charm) in a high energy kinematic region; this can facilitate the determination of PDFs in the small x region where previous data was limited. At present, the flavor separation of the proton PDFs is dependent on DIS data from nuclear targets. Therefore, improved nuclear corrections can also yield enhanced flavor determination of both the proton and nuclear PDFs.
We present updated nCTEQ nuclear parton distribution functions with errors including pion production data from RHIC. We compare them with the results of other groups and present selected LHC applications.
We compare predictions of nCTEQ15 nuclear parton distribution functions with proton-lead vector boson production data from the LHC. We select data sets that are most sensitive to nuclear PDFs and have potential to constrain them. We identify the kinematic regions and flavours where these data can bring new information and will have largest impact on the nuclear PDFs. Finally, we estimate the effect of including these data in a global analysis using a reweighting method.
We show how theoretical uncertainties due to nuclear effects may be incorporated into global fits of proton parton distribution functions (PDFs) that include deep-inelastic scattering and Drell-Yan data on nuclear targets. We specifically consider the CHORUS, NuTeV and E605 data included in the NNPDF3.1 fit, which used Pb, Fe and Cu targets, respectively. We show that the additional uncertainty in the proton PDFs due to nuclear effects is small, as expected, and in particular that the effect on the $\bar{d}/\bar{u}$ ratio, the total strangeness $s+\bar{s}$, and the strange valence distribution…
MSTW PDFs and impact of PDFs on cross sections at Tevatron and LHC
我们简要地总结了“MSTW 2008”的部分子分布函数（PDF）的确定，以及随后的后续研究，然后再回顾一些热门的问题，在Tevatron和LHC的截面的PDF依赖。我们更新了最近发表的基准标准模型总截面（W，Z，gg->H和t-tbar生产）在7 TeV LHC的研究，在那里我们占所有公开可用的PDF集，我们比较LHC数据的W，Z，和t-tbar生产。我们显示的灵敏度的希格斯截面的胶子分布，然后我们证明的能力的Tevatron喷流数据，以及LHC的t-tbar数据，区分PDF集与不同的高x胶子分布。我们讨论了从深度非弹性散射数据中提取强耦合α_S的相关问题，并得出结论：为了得到有意义的结果，需要对高x胶子分布进行直接的数据约束。因此，我们不鼓励使用PDF集获得的“非全球”适合高x胶子分布不直接受数据的约束。
We discuss the parton branching (PB) evolution equation for transverse momentum dependent (TMD) parton distribution functions (PDFs), especially we concentrate on the angular ordering constrain and its effect on the TMD distributions. We discuss application of the PB TMDs to precise prediction of Drell-Yan transverse momentum spectrum at LHC, stressing the role of angular ordering in the low transverse momentum region. We compare the PB implementation of the angular ordering condition with the Kimber-Martin-Ryskin-Watt (KMRW), both at the analytical and numerical level.
The effect of full $7$ sets of LHC ATLAS jet cross sections data at $ \sqrt{s} = 7$ TeV on the proton parton distribution functions (PDFs) up to next-to-next-to-next-to-leading order (NNNLO or N3LO) corrections is investigated for the first time. Phenomenologically, the proton central PDFs in this perturbative Quantum Chromo Dynamics (pQCD) analysis are defined based on the full seven data sets from HERA I and II combined. It is shown that, the LHC ATLAS jet cross sections data at $ \sqrt{s} = 7$ TeV on the HERA I and II combined data reduces the error band of proton PDFs. Particularly, the un…
Searches for new physics at the LHC will increasingly depend on identifying deviations from precision Standard Model (SM) predictions. At the higher energy scales involved for the LHC Run 2, the heavy quarks play a more prominent role than at the Tevatron. Recent theoretical developments improve our ability to address multi-scale problems and properly incorporate heavy quark masses across the full kinematic range. These developments are incorporated into the new nCTEQ15 PDFs, and we review these developments with respect to sample Run 2 measurements, and identify areas where additional effort …
We quantify the impact of LHCb D-meson measurements at $\sqrt{s}=5 \, {\rm TeV}$ on the EPPS16 and nCTEQ15 nuclear PDFs. In our study, the theoretical description of D-meson production is based on the recently developed SACOT-$m_{\rm T}$ variant of the general-mass variable-flavour-number formalism, and the impact on PDFs is estimated via reweighting methods. We pay special attention on the theoretical uncertainties known to us, and are led to exclude the $p_{\rm T}<3 \, {\rm GeV}$ region from our main analysis. The LHCb data can be accommodated well within EPPS16 and nCTEQ15, and the data pro…
I consider the effects of including a variety of new LHC data sets into the MMHT approach for PDF determination. I consider the impact of fitting new LHC and Tevatron data, which leads to clear improvements in some PDF uncertainties. There are specific issues with ATLAS 7 TeV jet data and I include a discussion of the treatment of correlated uncertainties and briefly the effects of NNLO corrections. I also present preliminary results with the inclusion of the high precison final ATLAS 7 TeV $W,Z$ rapidity-dependent data.
We quantify the impact of LHC dijet production measurements on the nNNPDF2.0 nuclear PDFs in twofold. First, from a proton baseline based on NNPDF3.1 and augmented by pp dijet production measurements from ATLAS and CMS at 7 and 8 TeV. Second, from a new nNNPDF2.0 global analysis including the ratio of pPb to pp dijet spectra from CMS at 5 TeV. We show that as opposed to the CMS at 5 TeV absolute pp and pPb dijet spectra, the pPb/pp ratio is well described in a nPDFs fit and provides strong constraints on the gluon of lead.
Using parton density functions (PDFs) with threshold-resummation improvement, we consistently calculate higgsino/gaugino and slepton pair production at next-to-leading order and next-to-leading logarithmic accuracy at the LHC. The smaller PDF uncertainty of the global PDF sets is exploited with a factorisation method, which also avoids complications arising in the refitting of threshold-resummation improved PDF replicas in Mellin space. We explicitly take into account the reduction of the scale uncertainty due to the resummation. We show that the resummation contributions in the PDF fits parti…
We report on EPPS16, the first global analysis of nuclear parton distribution functions (nPDFs) to include LHC data. Also for the first time, a full flavour dependence of nPDFs is allowed. While the included Z and W data are found to have insufficient statistics to yield stringent constraints, the CMS 5.02 TeV proton-lead dijet data prove crucial in setting the shape of nuclear gluon modifications. With these and other observables being measured in proton-lead runs, we are experiencing a shift of nPDFs to the LHC precision era.
Extraction of the strange quark PDF is a long-standing puzzle. We use the nCTEQ nPDFs with uncertainties to study the impact of the LHC W/Z production data on both the flavor differentiation and nuclear corrections; this complements the information from neutrino-DIS data. As the proton flavor determination is dependent on nuclear corrections (from heavy target DIS, for example), LHC heavy ion measurements can also help improve proton PDFs. We introduce a new implementation of the nCTEQ code (nCTEQ++) based on C++ which has a modular strucure and enables us to easily integrate programs such as …
We calculate cross-sections and cross-section ratios of a charm quark production in association with a $W$ gauge boson at next-to-leading order QCD using MadGraph and CT10NNLO, CT14NNLO, and MSTW2008NNLO PDFs. We compare the results with measurements from the CMS detector at the LHC at a center-of-mass energy of 7TeV. Moreover, we calculate absolute and normalized differential cross-sections as well as differential cross-section ratios as a function of the lepton pseudorapidity from the $W$ boson decay. The correlation between the CT14NNLO PDFs and predictions for $W+$ charm data are studied a…
A short review of the currently available modern parton distribution functions (PDFs)and the theory predictions obtained using those PDFs for several benchmark processes at LHC, including Higgs boson production, is presented in this write-up. It includes the discussion on theory assumptions made in the determination procedure of PDFs and an impact on the differences in the obtained predictions, followed by the alternative to PDF4LHC recommendations for the usage of PDF sets for theory predictions at the LHC.
We consider the transverse momentum dependent (TMD) quark densities of the proton which are very important ingredients for unpolarized Drell-Yan (DY) lepton pair production. We calculate the TMD sea quark density as a convolution of the Catani-Ciafaloni-Fiorani-Marchesini (CCFM)-evolved gluon distribution and the TMD gluon-to-quark splitting function. Based on the ${\cal O}(α^2)$ production amplitude $q^* + \bar q^* \to Z/γ^* \to l^+ + l^-$, calculated by taking into account the effective $q^*\bar q^* Z/γ^*$ - vertex, we analyze the distributions on the dilepton invariant mass, transverse mome…
Poor computing efficiency of precision event generators for LHC physics has become a bottleneck for Monte-Carlo event simulation campaigns. We provide solutions to this problem by focusing on two major components of general-purpose event generators: The PDF evaluator and the matrix-element generator. For a typical production setup in the ATLAS experiment, we show that the two can consume about 80% of the total runtime. Using NLO simulations of $pp\to\ell^+\ell^-+\text{jets}$ and $pp\to t\bar{t}+\text{jets}$ as an example, we demonstrate that the computing footprint of LHAPDF and Sherpa can be …
As active data taking has moved to the LHC at CERN, more and more LHC data have been included into fits of parton distribution functions. An anomaly has arisen where formerly excellent agreement between theoretical predictions and experiment in single-top-quark production at the Tevatron is no longer quite as good. Is this indicative of a deeper issue?
We consider the effect on LHC jet cross sections on partons distribution functions (PDFs), in particular the MSTW2008 set of PDFs. We first compare the published inclusive jet data to the predictions using MSTW2008, finding a very good description. We also use the parton distribution reweighting procedure to estimate the impact of these new data on the PDFs, finding that the combined ATLAS 2.76 TeV and 7 TeV data, and CMS 7 TeV data have some significant impact. We then also investigate the impact of ATLAS, CMS and D0 dijet data using the same techniques. In this case we investigate the effect…
Recent LHC W/Z vector boson production data in proton-lead collisions are quite sensitive to the heavier flavors (especially the strange PDF), and this complements the information from neutrino-DIS data. As the proton flavor determination is dependent on nuclear corrections (from heavy target DIS, for example), LHC heavy ion measurements can also help improve proton PDFs. We introduce a new implementation of the nCTEQ code (nCTEQ++) based on C++ which has a modular strucure and enables us to easily integrate programs such as HOPPET, APPLgrid, and MCFM. Using ApplGrids generated from MCFM, we u…
In this talk, I overview the recent progress on the global analysis of nuclear parton distribution functions (nuclear PDFs). After first introducing the contemporary fits, the analysis procedures are quickly recalled and the ambiguities in the use of experimental data outlined. Various nuclear-PDF parametrizations are compared and the main differences explained. The effects of nuclear PDFs in the LHC p-Pb hard-process observables are discussed and some future prospects sketched.
We provide a comprehensive comparison of W/Z vector boson production data in proton-lead and lead-lead collisions at the LHC with predictions obtained using the nCTEQ15 PDFs. We identify the measurements which have the largest potential impact on the PDFs, and estimate the effect of including these data using a Monte Carlo reweighting method. We find this data set can provide information about both the nuclear corrections and the heavy flavor (strange) PDF components. As the proton flavor determination is dependent on nuclear corrections (from heavy target DIS, for example), this information c…
I review the current status of global analysis of nuclear parton distributions and discuss some near-future prospects. I also advocate proton-nucleus (p-$A$) measurements at the LHC with $A\ll 208$ from the viewpoint of nuclear parton distributions.
In this paper we calculate the total and fiducial cross sections as well as differential distributions for the Higgs-strahlung or VH process $p p \to VH \to lν_l/l^- l^+ + H$, (V = W or Z, l=e,$μ$) including QCD and electro-weak corrections up to next-to-leading order before and after reweighting photon PDFs of NNPDF2.3qed, NNPDF3.0qed, MRST2004qed, CT14QEDinc, and LUXqed at the LHC with 13 TeV and Higgs boson mass $\ M_{H}=125$ GeV. The predictions from the various photon PDFs before and after reweighting against each other are in good agreement. The photon PDF uncertainties of the photon-ind…
There have been recent updates to the three global PDF fits (CT, MSHT and NNPDF), all adding large amounts of data from the LHC, and this has resulted in significant changes to the global PDFs. Given the impact that the new PDFs will have on physics comparisons at the LHC, it is crucial to perform a benchmarking among the PDFs, similar in spirit to that which was carried out for PDF4LHC15, widely used for LHC physics. In this article we detail a benchmarking comparison of three global PDF sets - CT18, MSHT20 and NNPDF3.1 - and their similarities and differences that have been observed. The end…
The quantum statistical parton distributions approach proposed more than one decade ago is revisited by considering a larger set of recent and accurate Deep Inelastic Scattering experimental results. It enables us to improve the description of the data by means of a new determination of the parton distributions. This global next-to-leading order QCD analysis leads to a good description of several structure functions, involving unpolarized parton distributions and helicity distributions, in a broad range of $x$ and $Q^2$ and in terms of a rather small number of free parameters. There are severa…
We present LO, NLO and NNLO sets of parton distribution functions (PDFs) of the proton determined from global analyses of the available hard scattering data. These MMHT2014 PDFs supersede the `MSTW2008' parton sets, but are obtained within the same basic framework. We include a variety of new data sets, from the LHC, updated Tevatron data and the HERA combined H1 and ZEUS data on the total and charm structure functions. We also improve the theoretical framework of the previous analysis. These new PDFs are compared to the `MSTW2008' parton sets. In most cases the PDFs, and the predictions, are …
We review the present status of the determination of parton distribution functions (PDFs) in the light of the precision requirements for the LHC in Run 2 and other future hadron colliders. We provide brief reviews of all currently available PDF sets and use them to compute cross sections for a number of benchmark processes, including Higgs boson production in gluon-gluon fusion at the LHC. We show that the differences in the predictions obtained with the various PDFs are due to particular theory assumptions made in the fits of those PDFs. We discuss PDF uncertainties in the kinematic region co…
We present a new methodology that is able to yield a simultaneous determination of the Parton Distribution Functions (PDFs) of the proton alongside any set of parameters that determine the theory predictions; whether within the Standard Model (SM) or beyond it. The SIMUnet methodology is based on an extension of the NNPDF4.0 neural network architecture, which allows the addition of an extra layer to simultaneously determine PDFs alongside an arbitrary number of such parameters. We illustrate its capabilities by simultaneously fitting PDFs with a subset of Wilson coefficients within the Standar…
The accurate determination of the Parton Distribution Functions (PDFs) of the proton is an essential ingredient of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) program. PDF uncertainties impact a wide range of processes, from Higgs boson characterisation and precision Standard Model measurements to New Physics searches. A major recent development in modern PDF analyses has been to exploit the wealth of new information contained in precision measurements from the LHC Run I, as well as progress in tools and methods to include these data in PDF fits. In this report we summarise the information that PDF-sensit…
The parton distribution functions (PDFs) of the proton play a role in determining the lineshape of $Z$ and $W$ bosons produced at the LHC. In particular, the mode of the gauge boson virtuality is shifted with respect to the pole due to the dependence of the partonic luminosity on the boson virtuality. The knowledge of this shift contributes to the systematic uncertainty for a direct measurement of the boson mass. A detailed study of the shift and of its systematic uncertainty due to the limited knowledge of the PDFs is obtained using a tree-level model of $Z$ and $W$ boson production in proton…
In ultra-peripheral heavy-ion collisions the nuclei pass with such a large impact parameter that no strong interaction can take place. However, a photon emitted by one nucleus can still interact either with the other nucleus or with a photon from the another nucleus. The former event type corresponds to photoproduction, earlier studied e.g. in electron-proton collisions at HERA, but now with a nuclear target. This provides an unique opportunity to study the nuclear modifications of the PDFs with the photo-nuclear processes measured in lead-lead collisions at the LHC. Here we present our recent…
The p$-$p collisions at high multiplicity at LHC show small scale collective effects similar to that observed in heavy ion collisions such as enhanced production of strange and multi-strange hadrons, long range azimuthal correlations, etc. The observation of strangeness enhancement in p$-$p collisions at at $\sqrt{s}$ = 7 TeV and 13 TeV as measured by ALICE experiment is explored using Pythia8 event generator within the framework of microscopic rope hadronization model which assumes the formation of ropes due to overlapping of strings in high multiplicity environment. The transverse momentum (…
We make use of recently released parton density functions (PDFs) with threshold-resummation improvement to consistently calculate theoretical predictions for neutralino and chargino pair production at next-to-leading order and next-to-leading logarithmic accuracy. The updated cross sections have been computed for experimentally relevant higgsino and gaugino search channels at the ongoing Run II of the LHC. A factorisation method is applied to exploit the smaller PDF uncertainty of the global PDF sets and to avoid complications arising in the refitting of threshold-resummation improved PDF repl…
