Parton distributions for the LHC

We present updated leading-order, next-to-leading order and next-to-next-to-leading order parton distribution functions (“MSTW 2008”) determined from global analysis of hard-scattering data within the standard framework of leading-twist fixed-order collinear factorisation in the [`(MS)]\overline{\mathrm{MS}} scheme. These parton distributions supersede the previously available “MRST” sets and should be used for the first LHC data taking and for the associated theoretical calculations. New data sets fitted include CCFR/NuTeV dimuon cross sections, which constrain the strange-quark and -antiquark distributions, and Tevatron Run II data on inclusive jet production, the lepton charge asymmetry from W decays and the Z rapidity distribution. Uncertainties are propagated from the experimental errors on the fitted data points using a new dynamic procedure for each eigenvector of the covariance matrix. We discuss the major changes compared to previous MRST fits, briefly compare to parton distributions obtained by other fitting groups, and give predictions for the W and Z total cross sections at the Tevatron and LHC.     

PDF and scale uncertainties of various DY distributions in ADD and RS models at hadron colliders

In the extra dimension models of ADD and RS we study the dependence of the various parton distribution functions on observables of Drell–Yan processes to NLO in QCD at LHC and Tevatron energies. Uncertainties at LHC due to factorisation scales in going from leading to next-to-leading order in QCD for the various distributions get reduced by about 2.75 times for a μ_F range 0.5Q<μ_F<1.5Q. Further uncertainties arising from the error on the experimental data are estimated using the MRST parton distribution functions.     

Parton distributions and the LHC: W and Z production

W and Z bosons will be produced copiously at the LHC proton-proton collider. We study the parton distribution dependence of the total production cross sections and rapidity distributions, paying particular attention to the uncertainties arising from uncertainties in the parton distributions themselves. Variations in the gluon, the strong coupling, the sea quarks and the overall normalisation are shown to lead to small but non-negligible variations in the cross section predictions. Ultimately, therefore, the measurement of these cross sections will provide a powerful cross check on our knowledge of parton distributions and their evolution. Received: 23 November 1999 / Published online: 6 April 2000     

Same-sign W pair production as a probe of double-parton scattering at the LHC

We study the production of same-sign W boson pairs at the LHC in double parton interactions. Compared with simple factorised double parton distributions (dPDFs), we show that the recently developed dPDFs, GS09, lead to non-trivial kinematic correlations between the W bosons. A numerical study of the prospects for observing this process using same-sign dilepton signatures, including W ^± W ^± jj, diboson and heavy flavour backgrounds, at 14 TeV centre-of-mass energy is then performed. It is shown that a small excess of same-sign dilepton events from double parton scattering over a background dominated by single scattering W ^± Z(γ ^*) production could be observed at the LHC.     

NNLO benchmarks for gauge and Higgs boson production at TeV hadron colliders

The inclusive production cross sections for W⁺,W⁻$W^{+},W^{-}$ and Z⁰$Z^0$-bosons form important benchmarks for the physics at hadron colliders. We perform a detailed comparison of the predictions for these standard candles based on recent next-to-next-to-leading order (NNLO) parton parameterizations and new analyses including the combined HERA data, compare to all available experimental results, and discuss the predictions for present and upcoming RHIC, SPS, Tevatron and LHC energies. The rates for gauge boson production at the LHC can be rather confidently predicted with an accuracy of better than about 10% at NNLO. We also present detailed NNLO predictions for the Higgs boson production cross sections for Tevatron and LHC energies (1.96, 7, 8, 14 TeV), and propose a possible method to monitor the gluon distribution experimentally in the kinematic region close to the mass range expected for the Higgs boson. The production cross sections of the Higgs boson at the LHC are presently predicted with an accuracy of about 10–17%. The inclusion of the NNLO contributions is mandatory for achieving such accuracies since the total uncertainties are substantially larger at NLO.     

Charge asymmetry in W + jets production at the LHC

The charge asymmetry in W ^±+ jets production at the LHC can serve to calibrate the presence of New Physics contributions. We study the ratio $\sigma(W^{+}+n\mbox{ jets})/\sigma(W^{-}+n\mbox{ jets})$ in the Standard Model for n≤4, paying particular attention to the uncertainty in the prediction from higher-order perturbative corrections and uncertainties in parton distribution functions. We show that these uncertainties are generally of order a few percent, making the experimental measurement of the charge asymmetry ratio a particularly useful diagnostic tool for New Physics contributions.     

Graviton plus vector boson production to NLO in QCD at the LHC

We present the next-to-leading order QCD corrections to the associated production of the vector gauge boson (Z/W^±$Z/W^{\pm }$) and the graviton in the large extra dimension model at the LHC. We estimate the impact of the QCD corrections on the total cross sections as well as the differential distributions of the gauge bosons and find that they are significant. We also study the dependence of the cross sections on the arbitrary factorization scale and show the reduction in the scale uncertainties at NLO level. Further, we discuss the ultraviolet sensitivity of the theoretical predictions.     

A posteriori inclusion of parton density functions in NLO QCD final-state calculations at hadron colliders: the APPLGRID project

A method to facilitate the consistent inclusion of cross-section measurements based on complex final-states from HERA, TEVATRON and the LHC in proton parton density function (PDF) fits has been developed. This can be used to increase the sensitivity of LHC data to deviations from Standard Model predictions. The method stores perturbative coefficients of NLO QCD calculations of final-state observables measured in hadron colliders in look-up tables. This allows the a posteriori inclusion of parton density functions (PDFs), and of the strong coupling, as well as the a posteriori variation of the renormalisation and factorisation scales in cross-section calculations. The main novelties in comparison to original work on the subject are the use of higher-order interpolation of Lagrangian form, which substantially improves the trade-off between accuracy and memory use, and a CPU and computer memory optimised way to construct and store the look-up table using modern software tools. It is demonstrated that a sufficient accuracy on the cross-section calculation can be achieved with reasonably small look-up table size by using the examples of jet production and electro-weak boson (Z, W) production in proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 14 TeV at the LHC. The use of this technique in PDF fitting is demonstrated in a PDF-fit to HERA data and simulated LHC jet cross-sections as well as in a study of the jet cross-section uncertainties at various centre-of-mass energies.     

Dynamical parton distributions of the nucleon and very small-x physics

Utilizing recent DIS measurements (F_2,L) and data on dilepton and high-E_T jet production we determine the dynamical parton distributions of the nucleon generated radiatively from valence-like positive input distributions at optimally chosen low resolution scales. These are compared with ‘standard’ distributions generated from positive input distributions at some fixed and higher resolution scale. It is shown that up to the next-to-leading order NLO(, DIS) of perturbative QCD considered in this paper, the uncertainties of the dynamical distributions are, as expected, smaller than those of their standard counterparts. This holds true in particular in the presently unexplored extremely small-x region relevant for evaluating ultrahigh energy cross sections in astrophysical applications. It is noted that our new dynamical distributions are compatible, within the presently determined uncertainties, with previously determined dynamical parton distributions.     

Implications of CMS analysis of photon-photon interactions for photon PDFs

As part of a recent analysis of exclusive two-photon production of W+W-pairs at the LHC, the CMS experiment used di-lepton data to obtain an "effective" photon-photon luminosity. We show how the CMS analysis on their 8 TeV data, along with some assumptions about the likelihood for events in which the proton breaks up to pass the selection criteria, can be used to significantly constrain the photon parton distribution functions, such as those from the CTEQ, MRST, and NNPDF collaborations. We compare the data with predictions using these photon distributions, as well as the new LUXqed photon distribution. We study the impact of including these data on the NNPDF2.3 QED, NNPDF3.0 QED and CT14 QEDinc fits. We find that these data place a useful and complementary cross-check on the photon distribution, which is consistent with the LUXqed prediction while suggesting that the NNPDF photon error band should be significantly reduced. Additionally, we propose a simple model for describing the two-photon production of W+W-at the LHC. Using this model, we constrain the number of inelastic photons that remain after the experimental cuts are applied.     

<Emphasis Type="Italic">B</Emphasis>-meson production at Tevatron and the LHC in the Regge limit of quantum chromodynamics

We study the inclusive hadroproduction of B⁰, B⁺, and B_s⁰ mesons in the leading order in the parton Reggeization approach. We have described B-meson transverse momentumdistributionsmeasured in the central region of rapidity by the CDF Collaboration at Fermilab Tevatron and CMS Collaboration at LHC within uncertainties and without free parameters, applying Kimber–Martin–Ryskin unintegrated gluon distribution function in a proton.     

Two Parton Shower Background for Associate <Emphasis Type="Italic">W</Emphasis> Higgs Production

The estimates of the background for the associate W Higgs production, which stems from the two parton shower production, leads to a background which is of the order of the signal for the non-perturbative contribution. In the perturbative approach the background turns out to be small. This background does not depend on the rapidity difference between the W and the pair, while the signal peaks when the rapidity difference is zero. Detailed calculations for the enhanced diagrams’ contribution to this process are presented, and it is shown that the overlapping singularities, being important theoretically, lead to a small contribution for the LHC range of energies.     

Can we get deeper inside the pion at the LHC?

We propose a measurement of leading neutrons spectra at LHC in order to extract inclusive π ⁺ p and π ⁺ π ⁺ cross-sections with high p _T jets production. The cross-sections for these processes are simulated with the use of parton distributions in hadrons. In this work we estimate the possibility to extract parton distributions in the pion from the data on these cross-sections and also search for signatures of fundamental differences in the pion and proton structure.     

Structure functions and parton distributions

We review recent developments in the determination of parton densities from deep inelastic and related data. We show how the asymmetries observed in theW ^± rapidity distributions and inpp/pn Drell-Yan production further constrain the partons at moderatex.     

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.     

NNLL threshold resummation for top-pair and single-top production

I discuss threshold resummation at NNLL accuracy in the standard moment-space approach in perturbative QCD for top-pair and single-top production. For top quark pair production I present new approximate NNLO results for the total cross section and for the top quark transverse momentum and rapidity distributions at 8 TeV LHC energy. I discuss the accuracy of the soft-gluon approximation and show that the NLO and NNLO approximate results from resummation are practically indistinguishable from exact NLO and partial NNLO results. For single top production I present new approximate NNLO results for the total cross sections in all three channels at the LHC and also for the top quark transverse momentum distributions in t-channel production and in top-quark associated production with a W boson. For both \(t\bar t\) and single-top production the agreement of theoretical results with LHC and Tevatron data is excellent.     

Parton distribution functions at LO,NLO and NNLO with correlated uncertainties between orders

Sets of parton distribution functions (PDFs) of the proton are reported for the leading (LO), next-to-leading (NLO) and next-to-next-to-leading-order (NNLO) QCD calculations. The parton distribution functions are determined with the HERAFitter program using the data from the HERA experiments and preserving correlations between uncertainties for the LO, NLO and NNLO PDF sets. The sets are used to study cross-section ratios and their uncertainties when calculated at different orders in QCD. A reduction of the overall theoretical uncertainty is observed if correlations between the PDF sets are taken into account for the ratio of \(WW\) di-boson to \(Z\) boson production cross sections at the LHC.     

W Boson Pair Production in Association with the Photon in Proton - Proton Collisions at LHC Energies

The vector bosons production at the Large Hadron Collider makes it possible to investigate in detail the basic structure of electroweak interactions. Besides the LHC with a good accuracy will be measure production of weak bosons (pp → W⁺W⁻). The production of weak bosons with photon (pp → W⁺W⁻γ) provides an increasingly powerful handle at higher center-of-mass energies. We present phenomenological results for WWγ production in proton-proton interaction at the Large Hadron Collider. In this paper, we calculate the total and differential cross sections. We consider the dependence of differential cross section distributions on transverse momentum and rapidity particles, which are produced in the final state (W⁺ and W⁻). We consider several important distributions, which are included in the search for new physics at the Large Hadron Collider. The results for transverse momentum distributions, rapidity distributions and total cross section are presented.

     

Towards a new global QCD analysis: low <Emphasis Type="Italic">x</Emphasis> DIS data from non-linear evolution

A new approach to global QCD analysis is developed. The main ingredients are two QCD-based evolution equations. The first one is the Balitsky-Kovchegov non-linear equation, which sums higher twists while preserving unitarity. The second equation is linear and it is responsible for the correct short distance behavior of the theory, namely it includes the DGLAP kernel. Our approach allows for extrapolation of the parton distributions to the very high energies available at the LHC as well as very low photon virtualities, . All existing low x data on the F₂ structure function are reproduced using two fitting parameters, the other parameters were taken as constants. The result is . Analyzing the parameter at very low x and Q² well below we find -0.1. This is a result which agrees with the “soft pomeron” intercept without involving soft physics. Received: 9 September 2002 / Revised version: 15 November 2002 / Published online: 14 February 2003