No Arabic abstract
We present an improved determination of the strange quark and anti-quark parton distribution functions of the proton by means of a global QCD analysis that takes into account a comprehensive set of strangeness-sensitive measurements: charm-tagged cross sections for fixed-target neutrino-nucleus deep-inelastic scattering, and cross sections for inclusive gauge-boson production and $W$-boson production in association with light jets or charm quarks at hadron colliders. Our analysis is accurate to next-to-next-to leading order in perturbative QCD where available, and specifically includes charm-quark mass corrections to neutrino-nucleus structure functions. We find that a good overall description of the input dataset can be achieved and that a strangeness moderately suppressed in comparison to the rest of the light sea quarks is strongly favored by the global analysis.
Beginning with precise data on the ratio of structure functions in deep inelastic scattering (DIS) from $^3$He and $^3$H, collected on the domain $0.19 leq x_B leq 0.83$, where $x_B$ is the Bjorken scaling variable, we employ a robust method for extrapolating such data to arrive at a model-independent result for the $x_B=1$ value of the ratio of neutron and proton structure functions. Combining this with information obtained in analyses of DIS from nuclei, corrected for target-structure dependence, we arrive at a prediction for the protons valence-quark ratio: $left. d_v/u_v right|_{x_Bto 1} = 0.230 (57)$. Requiring consistency with this result presents a challenge to many descriptions of proton structure.
We review recent progress in the determination of the parton distribution functions (PDFs) of the proton, with emphasis on the applications for precision phenomenology at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). First of all, we introduce the general theoretical framework underlying the global QCD analysis of the quark and gluon internal structure of protons. We then present a detailed overview of the hard-scattering measurements, and the corresponding theory predictions, that are used in state-of-the-art PDF fits. We emphasize here the role that higher-order QCD and electroweak corrections play in the description of recent high-precision collider data. We present the methodology used to extract PDFs in global analyses, including the PDF parametrization strategy and the definition and propagation of PDF uncertainties. Then we review and compare the most recent releases from the various PDF fitting collaborations, highlighting their differences and similarities. We discuss the role that QED corrections and photon-initiated contributions play in modern PDF analysis. We provide representative examples of the implications of PDF fits for high-precision LHC phenomenological applications, such as Higgs coupling measurements and searches for high-mass New Physics resonances. We conclude this report by discussing some selected topics relevant for the future of PDF determinations, including the treatment of theoretical uncertainties, the connection with lattice QCD calculations, and the role of PDFs at future high-energy colliders beyond the LHC.
We compute the helicity-dependent strange quark distribution in the proton in the framework of chiral effective theory. Starting from the most general chiral SU(3) Lagrangian that respects Lorentz and gauge invariance, we derive the complete set of hadronic splitting functions at the one meson loop level, including the octet and decuplet rainbow, tadpole, Kroll-Ruderman and octet-decuplet transition configurations. By matching hadronic and quark level operators, we obtain generalized convolution formulas for the quark distributions in the proton in terms of hadronic splitting functions and quark distributions in the hadronic configurations, and from these derive model-independent relations for the leading nonanalytic behavior of their moments. Within the limits of parameters of the Pauli-Villars regulators derived from inclusive hyperon production, we find that the polarized strange quark distribution is rather small and mostly negative.
In the light of recent experimental progress in determining the pressure and shear distributions in the proton, these quantities are calculated in a model with confined quarks supplemented by the pion field required by chiral symmetry. The incorporation of the pion contributions is shown to account for the long-range distributions, in general agreement with the experimentally extracted quark contributions. The results of the model are also compared with lattice QCD results at unphysically large quark mass.
Recently the TOTEM experiment at the LHC has released measurements at $sqrt{s} = 13$ TeV of the proton-proton total cross section, $sigma_{tot}$, and the ratio of the real to imaginary parts of the forward elastic amplitude, $rho$. Since then an intense debate on the $C$-parity asymptotic nature of the scattering amplitude was initiated. We examine the proton-proton and the antiproton-proton forward data above 10 GeV in the context of an eikonal QCD-based model, where nonperturbative effects are readily included via a QCD effective charge. We show that, despite an overall satisfactory description of the forward data is obtained by a model in which the scattering amplitude is dominated by only crossing-even elastic terms, there is evidence that the introduction of a crossing-odd term may improve the agreement with the measurements of $rho$ at $sqrt{s} = 13$ TeV. In the Regge language the dominant even(odd)-under-crossing object is the so called Pomeron (Odderon).