High transverse momentum physics at the large hadron collider

This note summarizes many detailed physics studies done by the ATLAS and CMS Collaborations for the LHC, concentrating on processes involving the production of high mass states. These studies show that the LHC should be able to elucidate the mechanism of electroweak symmetry breaking and to study a variety of other topics related to physics at the TeV scale. In particular, a Higgs boson with couplings given by the Standard Model is observable in several channels over the full range of allowed masses. Its mass and some of its couplings will be determined. If supersymmetry is relevant to electroweak interactions, it will be discovered and the properties of many supersymmetric particles elucidated. Other new physics, such as the existence of massive gauge bosons and extra dimensions can be searched for extending existing limits by an order of magnitude or more.     

Pion production at large transverse momentum

A constituent interchange model is used to give a natural explanation of the observed energy dependence of ISR data for π° production at 90°. It is predicted that at large fixed p_T and sufficiently high energy the cross section will become constant, with a p_T dependence of (p_T²)^?2.5. It is also tentatively suggested that the e⁺e^? annihilation structure function $\text{ν}\text{W}{}_2$ should behave like ω^?1.5 near ω = 0.     

Particle production at large transverse momentum

From a simple fragmentation approach to inelastic production at large fixed angles, we obtain an inclusive cross-section which falls as an inverse power of large transverse momentum p_T and which scales according to (p_T/√s), both consistent with ISR data. Predictions for charge ratios and associated multiplicities are also presented and compared with available data.     

Inclusive production at large transverse momentum in QCD

We calculate the cross section for the process quark + quark → quark (with large transverse momentum) + anything, up to order g⁶ in the cross section and in the leading-logarithm approximation. The result is suggestive of a simple ansatz for the calculation of the asymptotic behaviour of cross sections for the production of particles or jets with large transverse momenta.     

Hadron production at large transverse momentum and QCD

The predictions of a QCD-based hardscattering model for large p_T hadronic processes are investigated. Not only quark-quark scattering but all contributions in lowest order are considered. At low x_T, gluon-gluon and quark-gluon scattering are found to dominate the quark-quark term. At present energies the QCD predictions lie below the data but already come very close at the highest ISR energy. Predictions for higher p_T values and higher energies are made.     

A mechanism for the production of baryons at large transverse momentum

The difference between the proton and the antiproton distributions and the charged pion distribution are compared at largeP _T and agreement is found with a model attributing baryons to final state rearrangement of hard scattered partons. The model contains a dual topological suppression of baryonic clusters at largeP _T which is partially balanced as the cluster decay distribution into baryons is peaked at higher values of the momentum fractionz. The model implies positive correlations between antiproton triggers and opposite side protons.     

W production at large transverse momentum at the CERN Large Hadron Collider

We study the production of W bosons at large transverse momentum in pp collisions at the CERN Large Hadron Collider. We calculate the complete next-to-leading order (NLO) corrections to the differential cross section. We find that the NLO corrections provide a large increase to the cross section but, surprisingly, do not reduce the scale dependence relative to leading order (LO). We also calculate next-to-next-to-leading-order (NNLO) soft-gluon corrections and find that, although they are small, they significantly reduce the scale dependence thus providing a more stable result.     

Optimisation of variables for studying dilepton transverse momentum distributions at hadron colliders

In future measurements of the dilepton (Z/γ ^∗) transverse momentum, Q _T , at both the Tevatron and LHC, the achievable bin widths and the ultimate precision of the measurements will be limited by experimental resolution rather than by the available event statistics. In a recent paper the variable a _T , which corresponds to the component of Q _T that is transverse to the dilepton thrust axis, has been studied in this regard. In the region, Q _T < 30 GeV, a _T has been shown to be less susceptible to experimental resolution and efficiency effects than the Q _T . Extending over all Q _T , we now demonstrate that dividing a _T (or Q _T ) by the measured dilepton invariant mass further improves the resolution. In addition, we propose a new variable, f_h^*phi _{rm eta }^{*}, that is determined exclusively from the measured lepton directions; this is even more precisely determined experimentally than the above variables and is similarly sensitive to the Q _T . The greater precision achievable using such variables will enable more stringent tests of QCD and tighter constraints on Monte Carlo event generator tunes.     

Electromagnetic effects in the production of dimuons at large transverse momentum

The effects of single-photon corrections to the simple Drell-Yan mechanism $\text{(}\text{q}\text{q}\text{→ γ}{}^1\text{→ μ}{}^{\mathrm{+}}\text{μ}{}^{\mathrm{?}}\text{)}$ are studied for massive dimuons at large transverse momentum in the processes $\text{π}{}^{\mathrm{?}}\text{p}\text{→ μ}{}^{\mathrm{+}}\text{μ}{}^{\mathrm{?}}\text{X and}\text{p}\text{p}\text{→ μ}{}^{\mathrm{+}}\text{μ}{}^{\mathrm{?}}\text{X}$. It is found that single-photon emission by the muons constitutes an important correction to the effects of single-gluon emission by the quarks for very massive (M_μμ² ? m_μ²) muon pairs.Interference of the amplitude for photon emission from the muons with that for radiation from the quarks generates an asymmetry in the muon angular distribution. The forward-backward asymmetry is studied in detail as a function of pair mass and transverse momentum.     

Lepton pair production at large transverse momentum in second order QCD

The production of Drell-Yan pairs at large transverse momentum is calculated up to O(α_s²) for a non-singlet combination defined as the cross section for an incident particle minus the analogous cross section for an incident antiparticle. Analytic results are presented for all cross sections and numerical estimates are given at various energies of experimental interest.     

μ pair production in association with a large momentum hadron

Using the recombination model we analyze massive μ pair production in association with a low p_t (almost leading) Π^±, K^± meson in the target fragmentation region. The cross-section size of the Drell-Yan and ψ production processes (DY/ψ) for proton and nuclear targets is evaluated, and their kinematical distributions are discussed. The Π⁺/Π^? ratio of the μ pair associated Π meson offers immediate tests. We point out the feasibility of such studies in the backward region of high statistics fixed-target DY experiments.     

Nuclear effects at large transverse momentum in a QCD parton model

Production of single mesons and opposite side pairs of mesons in hadron-nucleus and nucleusnucleus collisions are calculated in the framework of the QCD parton model, with the assumption that quarks and gluons undergo multiple scattering in the nucleus. A comparison with all available data is made. It is also shown that the anomalous nuclear enhancement, especially its dependence on the flavour, can be quantitatively described within the model. Furthermore, we predict no enhancement for symmetric pairs as it seems to be indicated by the data. Predictions for largep _T production in α?α scattering at ISR are made.