Impact of lepton p_T threshold on charge asymmetry predictions for inclusive W boson production in pp collisions at 13 TeV

This paper presents the impact of the lepton transverse momentum p_T~l threshold on the W boson charge asymmetry predictions in perturbative QCD for the inclusive W~++X→l~±v+X production in proton-proton(pp)collisions.The predictions are obtained at various low-p_T~l thresholds p_T~l 20,25,30,and 40 GeV in a fiducial region encompassing both the central and forward detector acceptances in terms of the lepton pseudorapidity0 ≤η_l≤4.5.The predicted distributions for the lepton charge asymmetry,which is defined by η_l(A_(η_l)),at the nextto-next-to-leading order(NNLO) accuracy are compared with the CMS and LHCb data at 8 TeV center-of-mass collision energy.The 8 TeV predictions reproduce the data fairly well within the quoted uncertainties.The predictions from the CT14 parton distribution function(PDF) model are in a slightly better agreement with the data over the other PDF sets that are tested.The 13 TeV predictions using various p_T~l thresholds are reported for A_(η_l) and the charge asymmetries that are defined in terms of the differential cross sections in bins of the W boson rapidity yw(A_(y_w)) and transverse momentum p_T~W(A_(p_T~W)).The NNLO predictions for the A_(η_l),A_(y_w).and A_(p_T~W) distributions are assessed to be in close correlation with the p_T~l value.The A_(η_l) and A_(y_w) distributions are particularly shown to be more correlated at a higher p_T~l threshold.The A_(p_T~W) distributions are also reported from the merged predictions with improved accuracy by the inclusion of the next-to-next-to-next-to-leading logarithm(N'LL) corrections,i.e.,at NNLO+N~3 LL.The predicted distributions from various p_T~l thresholds represent a finer probe in terms of the capability to provide more constraints on the ratio of u and d quark distribution functions in the parton momentum fraction range 10~(-4) x1.     

Precision study of W~-W~+H production including parton shower effects at CERN Large Hadron Collider

The precision study of W~-W~+H production with subsequent W~±→l~±_v_l~((-)) and H→bb decays at the Large Hadron Collider(LHC) aids in the investigation of Higgs gauge couplings and the search for new physics beyond the standard model.In this study,we calculate the shower-matched next-to-leading order QCD and electroweak(EW)corrections from the qq annihilation and photon-induced channels to the W~-W~+H production at the 14 TeV LHC.We deal with the subsequent decays of Higgs and W~± bosons by adopting the MADSPIN method.Both the integrated cross section and some kinematic distributions of W~±,H,and their decay products are provided.We find that the QCD correction significantly enhances the leading-order differential cross section,while the EW correction from the qq annihilation channel obviously suppresses it,especially in the high energy phase-space region,due to the Sudakov effect.The qy-and yy-induced relative corrections are positive and insensitive to the transverse momenta of W~±,H,and their decay products.These photon-induced corrections compensate the negative qq-initiated EW correction,and become the dominant EW contribution as the increment of the pp colliding energy.The parton shower(PS) effects on kinematic distributions are not negligible.The relative PS correction to the b-jet transverse momentum distribution can exceed 100% in the high p_(T,b) region.Moreover,we investigate the scale and PDF uncertainties,and find that the theoretical error of the QCD+EW+qγ+γγ-corrected integrated cross section mainly originates from the renormalization scale dependence of the QCD correction.     

Determination of the nucleon-nucleon interaction in the ImQMD model by nuclear reactions at the Fermi energy region

The nucleon-nucleon interaction is investigated by using the improved quantum molecular dynamic （ImQMD） model with three sets of parameters IQ1, IQ2 and IQ3, in which the corresponding incompressibility coefficients of nuclear matter are different. The charge distributions of fragments are calculated for various reaction systems at different incident energies. The parameters strongly affect the charge distributions and the fragment multiplicity spectrum below the threshold energy of nuclear multifragmentation. The fragment multiplicity spectrum for 238U＋197Au at 15 A MeV and the charge distributions for 129Xe＋12~Sn at 32 and 45 A MeV, and 197Au＋197Au at 35 A MeV are reproduced by the ImQMD model with the set of parameter IQ3. It is found that： 1） The charge distribution of the fragments and the fragment multiplicity spectrum are good observables for testing the model and the parameters. 2） The Fermi energy region is a sensitive energy region for studying nucleon-nucleon interaction.     

Next-to-leading order QCD and electroweak corrections to Higgs-strahlung processes at the LHC

In this paper we calculate the total and fiducial cross sections as well as differential distributions for the Higgs-strahlung or VH process pp→VH→lv1/1~-1~++H,(V = W or Z, 1=e, μ) including QCD and electro-weak corrections up to next-to-leading order before and after reweighting photon PDFs of NNPDF2.3 qed, NNPDF3.0 qed,MRST2004 qed, CT14 QEDinc, and LUXqed at the LHC with 13 TeV and Higgs boson mass MH = 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-induced cross sections decrease significantly with the reweighting PDFs.     

Centrality Dependence of Productions for Single Hadrons and Inclusive Jets in High-Energy p+A Collisions with NLO QCD

By using the recent spatially dependent nuclear PDF set EPS09 s, we investigated the centrality-dependent Cold Nuclear Matter(CNM) effects for neutral π, η mesons and inclusive jets at RHIC in d+Au collisions and at LHC in p+Pb collisions. The nuclear modification factors as functions of transverse momentum are plotted at different centralities bins respectively. At all fixed centralities, the nuclear modification factors show no significant suppressions,contrast to the strong suppressions observed for central Au+Au collisions. Our results are consistent with the PHENIX preliminary Data in minimum bias and central d+Au collisions. The LHC experimental Data also support our predictions for both single inclusive hadron and inclusive jets productions in central p+Pb collisions. And the centrality dependence of the nuclear suppressions for all the observations in our calculations are lower than the RHIC and LHC Data.     

Event generators for η/η’ rare decays into π~+π~-1~+1~- and e~+e~-μ~+μ~-

Study of the rare and forbidden decays of η/η offers a sensitive probe to test fundamental symmetries of quantum chromodynamics and search for new physics beyond the Standard Model. To study the rare decays of η/η to π + π - e + e - , π + π - μ + μ - and e + e - μ + μ - at the BES detector, we developed several event generators based on the vector meson dominant model with finite-width corrections and the pseudoscalar mesons mixing theory. The various distributions from event generators are in good agreement with the theoretical predictions, which indicates that the event generators work very well after implemention in the BES Monte Carlo simulation package. In the BES physics analysis, the performance of the event generators will be improved in accordance with the distributions of different variables of η/η from data and the improvement on the theoretical calculations.     

Study of Monte Carlo event generators for proton-proton collisions at LHC energies in the forward region

In this paper we present a comparative study between PYTHIA,EPOS,QGSJET,and SIBYLL generators.The global event observables considered are the charged energy flow,charged particle distributions,charged hadron production ratios and V~0 ratios.The study is performed in the LHCb and TOTEM fiducial phase spaces on minimum bias simulated data samples for pp collisions at s~(1/2)= 7 TeV,using the reference measurements from these experiments.In the majority of cases,the measurements are within a band defined by the most extreme predictions.The observed differences between the predictions and the measurements seem to be,in most part,caused by extrapolation from the central pseudorapidity region(|η|≤2.5),in which the generators were mainly tuned.     

Determination of the nucleon-nucleon interaction in the ImQMD model by nuclear reactions at the Fermi energy region

The nucleon-nucleon interaction is investigated by using the improved quantum molecular dynamic (ImQMD) model with three sets of parameters IQ1,IQ2 and IQ3,in which the corresponding incompressibility coefficients of nuclear matter are different. The charge distributions of fragments are calculated for various reaction systems at different incident energies. The parameters strongly affect the charge distributions and the fragment multiplicity spectrum below the threshold energy of nuclear multifragmentation. The fragment multiplicity spectrum for ²³⁸U+¹⁹⁷Au at 15 A MeV and the charge distributions for ¹²⁹Xe+¹²⁰Sn at 32 and 45 A MeV,and ¹⁹⁷Au+¹⁹⁷Au at 35 A MeV are reproduced by the ImQMD model with the set of parameter IQ3. It is found that: 1) The charge distribution of the fragments and the fragment multiplicity spectrum are good observables for testing the model and the parameters. 2) The Fermi energy region is a sensitive energy region for studying nucleon-nucleon interaction.     

Near-threshold η production in pp collisions

We study near-threshold η meson production in pp collisions within an effective Lagrangian approach combined with the isobar model, by allowing for the various intermediate nucleon resonances due to the π, η, and ρ-meson exchanges. It is shown that the ρ-meson exchange is the dominant excitation mechanism for these resonances,and the contribution from the N*(1720) is dominant. The total cross section data can be reasonably reproduced,and the anisotropic angular distributions of the emitted η meson are consistent with experimental measurements.Besides, the invariant mass spectra of pp and pη explain the data well at excess energy of 15 Me V, and are basically consistent with the data at excess energy of 40 Me V. However, our model calculations cannot reasonably account for the two-peak structure in the pη distribution at excess energies of 57 and 72 Me V, which suggests that a more complicated mechanism is needed at higher energy region.     

Charge fluctuations in Au+Au collisions at RHIC energy

A hadron and string cascade model, JPCIAE, together with the corresponding Monte Carlo event generator, has been employed in this paper to investigate further the charge fluctuations in Au+Au collisions at Snn = 130 GeV. The default JPCIAE calculations are in good agreement with PHENIX and STAR data. We found that the thermal predictions for the π gas, the resonance π gas and quark matter deviate, respectively, from the corresponding dynamical simulations from the JPCIAE model. The discrepancies were also found between the π charge fluctuations and the charge fluctuations of all species of hadrons. However the charge fluctuations for "π from ρ and ω decay" and for all the hadrons from resonance decay are close to each other, indicating the correlation between positively and negatively charged hadrons is not sensitive to the species of hadrons. This work shows further that it is questionable to use the charge fluctuations as a signature of QGP.     

Gluon saturation and baryon stopping in the SPS, RHIC, and LHC energy regions

A new geometrical scaling method with a gluon saturation rapidity limit is proposed to study the gluon saturation feature of the central rapidity region of relativistic nuclear collisions. The net-baryon number is essentially transported by valence quarks that probe the saturation regime in the target by multiple scattering. We take advantage of the gluon saturation model with geometric scaling of the rapidity limit to investigate net baryon distributions, nuclear stopping power and gluon saturation features in the SPS and RHIC energy regions. Predictions for net-baryon rapidity distributions, mean rapidity loss and gluon saturation feature in central Pb+Pb collisions at the LHC are made in this paper.     

Influence of breakup on elastic and α-production channels in the ~6Li+~(116)Sn reaction

The effects of breakup reactions on elastic and α-production channels for the ~6Li+~(116)Sn system have been investigated at energies below and near the Coulomb barrier. The angular distributions of α-particle production differential cross sections have been obtained at several projectile energies between 22 and 40 MeV. The measured breakup α-particle differential cross sections and elastic scattering angular distributions have been compared with the predictions of continuum-discretized coupled channels(CDCC) calculations. The influence of breakup coupling has also been investigated by extracting dynamic polarization potentials(DPP) from the CDCC calculations. From the predictions of CDCC calculations the relative importance of the nuclear, Coulomb, and total breakup contributions have also been investigated. The nuclear breakup couplings are observed to play an important role in comparison to the Coulomb breakup for the direct breakup mechanisms associated in the reaction of ~6Li projectile with ~(116)Sn target nuclei. The influence of strong nuclear breakup coupling exhibits suppression in the Coulomb-nuclear interference peak. The direct breakup cross sections from the CDCC calculations under-predict the measured α-particle differential cross sections at all energies. This suggests that the measured α particles may also have contributions from other possible breakup reaction channels.     

Study of K*(892)0andФ(1020)meson production in proton–proton and Pb–Pb collisions at√SNN=2.76 TeV

In this paper,we describe a study of charged particle yield as a function of pT for K^*(892)0 and phgr(1020)mesons in proton–proton(pp)and Pb–Pb collisions at√S_NN=2.76 TeV in the central rapidity region of|y|<0.5,in a pT range of 0?1in pp collisions and in a pT range of 0NN=2.76 TeV.It was concluded that the models'predictions for the phgr-meson in pp and for the most central Pb-Pb collisions disagreed with the ALICE data,and that the difference increased with pT.This may be connected with the essential role of collective parton behaviors which could not have been taken into account by the models.For K^*0 mesons,both programs gave almost the same predictions,and with pT in the interval pT>3 GeV c^?1,the predictions were very close to the experimental data.Both models gave higher predictions for the soft pT interval and lower predictions for the hard interactions.The values of the RAA distributions were lower than unity and both models were very close to the ALICE data.It is very interesting that the models were not able to describe the pT distributions,but they gave good predictions for their ratios.This may possibly be due to parton collective behaviors.We observed some additional suppression of K^*0 at low values of pT with respect to phgr-mesons,which may be related to the role of the masses of the particles in soft interactions.The rising trend for R_AAin the region from pT=10 GeV c^?1to 20 GeV c^?1 observed by the ALICE experiment was absent for theФ-mesons.     

Prospectives of the hadron program in ATLAS

One of the first measurements that will be made at the LHC by ATLAS deals with the properties of inelastic collisions,namely the central charged particle density and transverse momentum distributions.Current predictions of these distributions have large uncertainties in the LHC energy range.We describe the ATLAS minimum bias triggers,designed to select all kind of inelastic interactions,and the performance of the track reconstruction software which was adapted to soft particle track reconstruction.The precision with which the minimum bias distributions can be measured with early data is presented and the uncertainties on the inelastic distributions due to trigger bias is discussed.     

Spontaneous Fission Barriers Based on a Generalized Liquid Drop Model

The barrier against the spontaneous fission has been determined within the Generalized Liquid Drop Model （GLDM） including the mass and charge asymmetry, and the proximity energy. The shell correction of the spherical parent nucleus is calculated by using the Strutinsky method, and the empirical shape-dependent shell correction is 6mp10yed during the deformation process. A quasi-molecular shape sequence has been defined to describe the whole process from one-body shape to two-body shape system, and a two-touching-ellipsoid is adopted when the superdeformed one-body system reaches the rupture point. On these bases the spontaneous fission barriers are systematically studied for nuclei from 2a~Th to 249 Cm for different possible exiting channels with the different mass and charge asymmetries. The double, and triple bumps are found in the fission potential energy in this region, which roughly agree with the experimental results. It is found that at around Sn-like fragment the outer fission barriers are lower, while the partner of the Sn-like fragment is in the range near l~SRu where the ground-state mass is lowered by allowing axially symmetric shapes. The preferable fission channels are distinctly pronounced, which should be corresponding to the fragment mass distributions.     

Defect engineering on the electronic and transport properties of one-dimensional armchair phosphorene nanoribbons

We investigate the electronic and transport properties of one-dimensional armchair phosphorene nanoribbons(APNRs) containing atomic vacancies with different distributions and concentrations using ab initio density functional calculations. It is found that the atomic vacancies are easier to form and detain at the edge region rather than a random distribution through analyzing formation energy and diffusion barrier. The highly local defect states are generated at the vicinity of the Fermi level, and emerge a deep-to-shallow transformation as the width increases after introducing vacancies in APNRs.Moreover, the electrical transport of APNRs with vacancies is enhanced compared to that of the perfect counterparts. Our results provide a theoretical guidance for the further research and applications of PNRs through defect engineering.     

Parton distribution functions and nuclear EMC effect in a statistical model

A new and simple statistical approach is performed to calculate the parton distribution functions （PDFs） of the nucleon in terms of light-front kinematic variables.Analytic expressions of x-dependent PDFs are obtained in the whole x region.And thereafter,we treat the temperature T as a parameter of the atomic number A to explain the nuclear EMC effect in the region x ∈ [0.2,0.7].We give the predictions of PDF ratios,and they are very different from those by other models,thus experiments aiming at measuring PDF ratios are suggested to provide a discrimination of different models.     

Experimental Prospects of the B_c Studies of the LHCb Experiment

The experimental prospects of the Bc studies of the LHCb experiment are discussed. Production rates of Bc mesons at different center-of-mass energies are estimated with the dedicated generator BCVEGPY. Theoretical estimates and experimental measurements of the Bc± inclusive production cross section at /s =1.96 TeV are compared. The possibilities of studying Bc production, Bc spectroscopy, Bc decays and CP violation in Bc decays in the LHCb experiment are evaluated.