We investigate the impact of parton distribution functions (PDFs) uncertainties on W/Z production at the LHC, concentrating on the strange quark PDF. Additionally we examine the extent to which precise measurements at the LHC can provide additional information on the proton flavor structure.
We present a phenomenological study of the associated production of a prompt photon and a heavy quark jet (charm or bottom) in Pb-Pb collisions at the LHC. This channel allows for estimating the amount of energy loss experienced by the charm and bott
om quarks propagating in the dense QCD medium produced in those collisions. Calculations are carried out at next-to-leading order (NLO) accuracy using the BDMPS-Z heavy-quark quenching weights. The quenching of the single heavy-quark jet spectrum reflects fairly the hierarchy in the heavy quark energy loss assumed in the perturbative calculation. On the contrary, the single photon spectrum in heavy-ion collisions is only modified at low momenta, for which less heavy-quark jets pass the kinematic cuts. On top of single particle spectra, the two-particle final state provides a range of observables (photon-jet pair momentum, jet asymmetry, among others) which are studied in detail. The comparison of the photon-jet pair momentum, from p-p to Pb-Pb collisions, is sensitive to the amount of energy lost by the heavy-quarks and could therefore be used in order to better understand parton energy loss processes in the heavy quark sector.
We compute the structure functions F2 and FL in the ACOT scheme for heavy quark production. We use the complete ACOT results to NLO, and make use of the MSbar massless results at NNLO and N3LO to estimate the higher order mass-dependent corrections.
We show numerically that the dominant heavy quark mass effects can be taken into account using massless Wilson coefficients together with an appropriate rescaling prescription. Combining the exact NLO ACOT scheme with these expressions should provide a good approximation to the full calculation in the ACOT scheme at NNLO and N3LO.
We analyze the properties of the ACOT scheme for heavy quark production and make use of the MS-Bar massless results at NNLO and N3LO for the structure functions F2 and FL in neutral current deep-inelastic scattering to estimate the higher order corre
ctions. The dominant heavy quark mass effects at higher orders can be taken into account using the massless Wilson coefficients together with an appropriate slow-rescaling prescription implementing the phase space constraints. Combining the exact ACOT scheme at NLO with these expressions should provide a good approximation to the full calculation in the ACOT scheme at NNLO and N3LO.
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.
Global analyses of Parton Distribution Functions (PDFs) have provided incisive constraints on the up and down quark components of the proton, but constraining the other flavor degrees of freedom is more challenging. Higher-order theory predictions an
d new data sets have contributed to recent improvements. Despite these efforts, the strange quark PDF has a sizable uncertainty, particularly in the small x region. We examine the constraints from experiment and theory, and investigate the impact of this uncertainty on LHC observables. In particular, we study W/Z production to see how the s-quark uncertainty propagates to these observables, and examine the extent to which precise measurements at the LHC can provide additional information on the proton flavor structure.
We analyze the properties of the ACOT scheme for heavy quark production and make use of the MSbar massless results at NNLO and N3LO for the structure functions F2 and FL in neutral current deep-inelastic scattering to estimate the higher order correc
tions. For this purpose we decouple the heavy quark mass entering the phase space from the one entering the dynamics of the short distance cross section. We show numerically that the phase space mass is generally more important. Therefore, the dominant heavy quark mass effects at higher orders can be taken into account using the massless Wilson coefficients together with an appropriate slow-rescaling prescription implementing the phase space constraints. Combining the exact ACOT scheme at NLO with these expressions should provide a good approximation to the missing full calculation in the ACOT scheme at NNLO and N3LO.
We survey some of the recent developments in the extraction and application of heavy quark Parton Distribution Functions (PDFs). We also highlight some of the key HERA measurements which have contributed to these advances.
