No Arabic abstract
We discuss the fact that $k_t$-factorization calculations for heavy-quark production include only the $ggrightarrow Qbar{Q}$ contribution. The cases of fixed-flavor-number scheme and variable-flavor-number scheme calculations are analyzed separately. For the latter, we show that, similarly to the collinear factorization, the main contribution is given by the $Qgrightarrow Qg$ process. In this scheme, calculations including only the $gg$ contribution should show a large discrepancy with the data. We show that, if they do not, it is because they include (effectively) a large $K$ factor.
We calculate and analyze Z and W production in association with quark-antiquark pair in k_T-factorization. Numerical calculations are performed using the Monte Carlo generator CASCADE for proton proton collisions at LHC energy. We compare total and differential cross sections calculated in k_T-factorization approach with total differential cross sections obtained in LO and NLO calculations in collinear factorization approach. We provide strong evidence that some of the effects of the NLO and even higher order collinear calculation are already included in the LO k_T-factorization calculation.
Conventional perturbative QCD calculations on the production of a heavy quark ``$H$ consist of two contrasting approaches: the usual QCD parton formalism uses the zero-mass approximation ($m_H=0$) once above threshold, and treats $H$ just like the other light partons; on the other hand, most recent ``NLO heavy quark calculations treat $m_H$ as a % large parameter and always consider $H$ as a heavy particle, never as a parton, irrespective of the energy scale of the physical process. By their very nature, both these approaches are limited in their regions of applicability. This dichotomy can be resolved in a unified general-mass variable-flavor-number scheme, which retains the $m_H$ dependence at all energies, and which naturally reduces to the two conventional approaches in their respective region of validity. Recent applications to lepto- and hadro-production of heavy quarks are briefly summarized.
We present the CTEQ6HQ parton distribution set which is determined in the general variable flavor number scheme which incorporates heavy flavor mass effects; hence, this set provides advantages for precision observables which are sensitive to charm and bottom quark masses. We describe the analysis procedure, examine the predominant features of the new distributions, and compare with previous distributions. We also examine the uncertainties of the strange quark distribution and how the the recent NuTeV dimuon data constrains this quantity.
We investigate a possible use of direct photon production in association with a heavy quark to test different models of intrinsic heavy quark parton distribution function (PDF) at the Tevatron, at the large hadron collider (LHC) and at RHIC.
We discuss the inclusive production of jets in the central region of rapidity in the context of k_T-factorization at next-to-leading order (NLO). Calculations are performed in the Regge limit making use of the NLO BFKL results. We introduce a jet cone definition and carry out a proper phase--space separation into multi-Regge and quasi-multi-Regge kinematic regions. We discuss two situations: scattering of highly virtual photons, which requires a symmetric energy scale to separate impact factors from the gluon Greens function, and hadron-hadron collisions, where a non-symmetric scale choice is needed.