No Arabic abstract
We compute the leading-order evolution of parton distribution functions for all the Standard Model fermions and bosons up to energy scales far above the electroweak scale, where electroweak symmetry is restored. Our results include the 52 PDFs of the unpolarized proton, evolving according to the SU(3), SU(2), U(1), mixed SU(2) x U(1) and Yukawa interactions. We illustrate the numerical effects on parton distributions at large energies, and show that this can lead to important corrections to parton luminosities at a future 100 TeV collider.
We present a new set of parton distributions, NNPDF3.1, which updates NNPDF3.0, the first global set of PDFs determined using a methodology validated by a closure test. The update is motivated by recent progress in methodology and available data, and involves both. On the methodological side, we now parametrize and determine the charm PDF alongside the light quarks and gluon ones, thereby increasing from seven to eight the number of independent PDFs. On the data side, we now include the D0 electron and muon W asymmetries from the final Tevatron dataset, the complete LHCb measurements of W and Z production in the forward region at 7 and 8 TeV, and new ATLAS and CMS measurements of inclusive jet and electroweak boson production. We also include for the first time top-quark pair differential distributions and the transverse momentum of the Z bosons from ATLAS and CMS. We investigate the impact of parametrizing charm and provide evidence that the accuracy and stability of the PDFs are thereby improved. We study the impact of the new data by producing a variety of determinations based on reduced datasets. We find that both improvements have a significant impact on the PDFs, with some substantial reductions in uncertainties, but with the new PDFs generally in agreement with the previous set at the one sigma level. The most significant changes are seen in the light-quark flavor separation, and in increased precision in the determination of the gluon. We explore the implications of NNPDF3.1 for LHC phenomenology at Run II, compare with recent LHC measurements at 13 TeV, provide updated predictions for Higgs production cross-sections and discuss the strangeness and charm content of the proton in light of our improved dataset and methodology. The NNPDF3.1 PDFs are delivered for the first time both as Hessian sets, and as optimized Monte Carlo sets with a compressed number of replicas.
We critically examine uncertainties in parton distribution functions (PDFs) at large x arising from nuclear effects in deuterium F2 structure function data. Within a global PDF analysis, we assess the impact on the PDFs from uncertainties in the deuteron wave function at short distances and nucleon off-shell effects, the use of relativistic kinematics, as well as the use of less a restrictive parametrization of the d/u ratio. We find that in particular the d-quark and gluon PDFs vary significantly with the choice of nuclear model. We highlight the impact of these uncertainties on the determination of the neutron structure function, and on W boson production and parton luminosity at the Tevatron and the LHC. Finally, we discuss prospects for new measurements sensitive to the d-quark and gluon distributions but insensitive to nuclear corrections.
We study the rare decay $Bto K_2^ast(1430)(to Kpi)ell^+ell^-$ in the Standard Model and beyond. Working in the transversity basis, we exploit the relations between the heavy-to-light form factors in the limit of heavy quark ($m_bto infty$) and large energy ($E_{K_2^ast}to infty$) of the $K^ast_2$ meson. This allows us to construct observables where at leading order in $Lambda_{rm QCD}/m_b$ and $alpha_s$ the form factor dependence involving the $Bto K^ast_2$ transitions cancels. Higher order corrections are systematically incorporated in the numerical analysis. In the Standard Model the decay has a sizable branching ratio and therefore a large number of events can be expected at LHCb. Going beyond the Standard Model, we explore the implications of the global fit to presently available $bto sell^+ell^-$ data on the $Bto K_2^ast ell^+ell^-$ observables.
A phenomenological model for the description of the single and double diffractive excitation in $pp$ collisions at high energies is presented. Considering the Good -- Walker approach, we propose a model for the eigenstates of the scattering operator and for the treatment of the interaction between them, with the high energy behavior of the cross section driven by perturbative QCD. The behavior of the total, elastic, single and double diffractive cross sections are analyzed and predictions for the energies of Run 3 of the LHC and those of the Cosmic Rays experiments are derived. We demonstrate that the model describes the current data for the energy dependence of the cross sections. A comparison with the recent data for the $rho$ parameter and the differential elastic cross section are also presented and shortcomings of the current model are discussed.
In the present paper we study the limit of zero mass in nonabelian gauge theories both with Higgs mechanism and in the nonlinear realization of the gauge group (Stueckelberg mass). We argue that in the first case the longitudinal modes undergo a metamorphosis process to the Goldstone scalar modes, while in the second we guess a decoupling process associated to a phase transformation. The two scenarios yield strikingly different behaviors at high energy, mainly ascribed to the presence of a massless Higgs doublet among the physical modes in the case of Higgs mechanism (i.e. not only the Higgs boson). The aim of this work is to show that the problem of unitarity at high energy in nonabelian gauge theory with no Higgs boson can open new perspectives in quantum field theory.