No Arabic abstract
Global perturbative QCD analyses, based on large data sets from electron-proton and hadron collider experiments, provide tight constraints on the parton distribution function (PDF) in the proton. The extension of these analyses to nuclear parton distributions (nPDF) has attracted much interest in recent years. nPDFs are needed as benchmarks for the characterization of hot QCD matter in nucleus-nucleus collisions, and attract further interest since they may show novel signatures of non-linear density-dependent QCD evolution. However, it is not known from first principles whether the factorization of long-range phenomena into process-independent parton distribution, which underlies global PDF extractions for the proton, extends to nuclear effects. As a consequence, assessing the reliability of nPDFs for benchmark calculations goes beyond testing the numerical accuracy of their extraction and requires phenomenological tests of the factorization assumption. Here we argue that a proton-nucleus collision program at the LHC would provide a set of measurements allowing for unprecedented tests of the factorization assumption underlying global nPDF fits.
Global perturbative QCD analyses, based on large data sets from electron-proton and hadron collider experiments, provide tight constraints on the parton distribution function (PDF) in the proton. The extension of these analyses to nuclear parton distributions (nPDF) has attracted much interest in recent years. nPDFs are needed as benchmarks for the characterization of hot QCD matter in nucleus-nucleus collisions, and attract further interest since they may show novel signatures of non- linear density-dependent QCD evolution. However, it is not known from first principles whether the factorization of long-range phenomena into process-independent parton distribution, which underlies global PDF extractions for the proton, extends to nuclear effects. As a consequence, assessing the reliability of nPDFs for benchmark calculations goes beyond testing the numerical accuracy of their extraction and requires phenomenological tests of the factorization assumption. Here we argue that a proton-nucleus collision program at the LHC would provide a set of measurements allowing for unprecedented tests of the factorization assumption underlying global nPDF fits.
Global perturbative QCD analyses, based on large data sets from e-p and hadron collider experiments, provide tight constraints on the parton distribution function (PDF) in the proton. The extension of these analyses to nuclear parton distributions (nPDF) has attracted much interest in recent years. nPDFs are needed as benchmarks for the characterization of hot QCD matter in nucleus-nucleus collisions, and attract further interest since they may show novel signatures of non-linear density-dependent QCD evolution. However, it is not known from first principles whether the factorization of long-range phenomena into process-independent parton distribution, which underlies global PDF extractions for the proton, extends to nuclear effects. As a consequence, assessing the reliability of nPDFs for benchmark calculations goes beyond testing the numerical accuracy of their extraction and requires phenomenological tests of the factorization assumption. Here we argue that a proton-nucleus collision programme at the LHC, including a rapidity scan, would provide a set of measurements allowing for unprecedented tests of the factorization assumption underlying global nPDF fits.
We present predictions for the double parton scattering (DPS) four-jet production cross sections in $pA$ collisions at the LHC. Relying on the experimental capabilities to correlate centrality with impact parameter $B$ of the proton-nucleus collision, we discuss a strategy to extract the double parton scattering contributions in $pA$ collisions, which gives direct access to double parton distribution in the nucleon. We show that the production cross sections via DPS of four jets, out of which two may be light- or heavy-quark jets, are large enough to allow the method to be used already with data accumulated in 2016 $pA$ run.
We present results on Zjj production via double parton scattering in pA collisions at the LHC. We perform the analysis at leading and next-leading order accuracy with different sets of cuts on jet transverse momenta and accounting for the single parton scattering background. By exploiting the experimental capability to measure the centrality dependence of the cross section, we discuss the feasibility of DPS observation in already collected data at the LHC and in future runs.
Using QCD calculations of the cross section of inclusive dijet photoproduction in Pb-Pb ultraperipheral collisions in the LHC kinematics as pseudo-data, we study the effect of including these data using the Bayesian reweighting technique on nCTEQ15, nCTEQ15np, and EPPS16 nuclear parton distribution functions (nPDFs). We find that, depending on the assumed error of the pseudo-data, it leads to a significant reduction of the nPDF uncertainties at small values of the momentum fraction $x_A$. Taking the error to be 5%, the uncertainty of nCTEQ15 and nCTEQ15np nPDFs reduces approximately by a factor of two at $x_A=10^{-3}$. At the same time, the reweighting effect on EPPS16 nPDFs is much smaller due to the higher value of the tolerance and a more flexible parametrization form.