arXiv subjects

David d'Enterria

Publications and source records attributed to David d'Enterria.

At least 55 records · Page 3Linked to original sources

arXiv2019

$α_s$(2019): Precision measurements of the QCD coupling

This document collects a written summary of all contributions presented at the workshop "$α_s$(2019): Precision measurements of the strong coupling" held at ECT* (Trento) in Feb. 11--15, 2019. The workshop explored in depth the latest developments on the determination of the QCD coupling $α_s$ from the key categories where high precision measurements are available: (i) lattice QCD, (ii) hadronic $τ$ decays, (iii) deep-inelastic scattering and parton distribution functions, (iv) event shapes, jet cross sections, and other hadronic final-states in $e^+e^-$ collisions, (v) Z boson and W boson hadronic decays, and (vi) hadronic final states in p-p collisions. The status of the current theoretical and experimental uncertainties associated to each extraction method, and future perspectives were thoroughly reviewed. Novel $α_s$ determination approaches were discussed, as well as the combination method used to obtain a world-average value of the QCD coupling at the Z mass pole.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2019

Higgs boson production in partonic and electromagnetic interactions with heavy ions

Higgs boson production in partonic and electromagnetic (photon-photon) interactions of light- and heavy-ions (A-A) at the LHC and future colliders is summarized. Parton-induced cross sections --including gluon-gluon, vector-boson fusion, and associated W, Z, t processes-- are computed at NNLO with MCFM 8.0 using nuclear parton distribution functions. Photon-photon cross sections are computed with MadGraph 5.0 for ultraperipheral A-A interactions with both ions surviving the collision. In the center-of-mass energy range $\sqrt{s} \approx 5$--100 TeV, the ratio of electromagnetic-to-partonic Higgs cross sections is $\rm R_{e.m./parton} \approx 10^{-5}$--10$^{-4}$. At FCC energies, this ratio is 10--100 times larger in A-A than in p-p thanks to the strong nuclear coherent $γ$ fluxes. The feasibility of Higgs boson measurements at LHC, HE-LHC, and FCC, in the most-favourable $H\toγγ,b\bar{b}$ decay channels in partonic and e.m. interactions respectively, is determined taking into account standard acceptance and efficiency losses on the final states, plus selection criteria to minimize the respective continuum backgrounds. Whereas $3σ$ evidence for partonic and e.m. Higgs production requires about $\times$35 and $\times$200 ($\times$7 and $\times$30) larger integrated luminosities than those expected for a nominal 1-month run at the LHC (HE-LHC), a $5σ$ observation of both production modes is warranted in just one month at the FCC.

hep-ex↗

arXiv2019

FCC-ee: Your Questions Answered

This document answers in simple terms many FAQs about FCC-ee, including comparisons with other colliders. It complements the FCC-ee CDR and the FCC Physics CDR by addressing many questions from non-experts and clarifying issues raised during the European Strategy symposium in Granada, with a view to informing discussions in the period between now and the final endorsement by the CERN Council in 2020 of the European Strategy Group recommendations. This document will be regularly updated as more questions appear or new information becomes available.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2019

Ultrahigh-energy cosmic rays: Anomalies, QCD, and LHC data

Measurements of proton and nuclear collisions at the Large Hadron Collider at nucleon-nucleon c.m. energies up to $\sqrt{s_{NN}}=$ 13 TeV, have improved our understanding of hadronic interactions at the highest energies reached in collisions of cosmic rays with nuclei in the earth atmosphere, up to $\sqrt{s_{NN}}\approx 450$ TeV. The Monte Carlo event generators (EPOS, QGSJET, and SIBYLL) commonly used to describe the air showers generated by ultrahigh-energy cosmic rays (UHECR, with $E_{CR}\approx 10^{17}$--$10^{20}$ eV) feature now, after parameter retuning based on LHC Run-I data, more consistent predictions on the nature of the cosmic rays at the tail of the measured spectrum. However, anomalies persist in the data that cannot be accommodated by the models. Among others, the total number of muons (as well as their maximum production depth) remains significantly underestimated (overestimated) by all models. Comparisons of EPOS, QGSJET, and SIBYLL predictions to the latest LHC data, and to collider MC generators such as PYTHIA, indicate that improved description of hard multiple minijet production and nuclear effects may help reduce part of the data--model discrepancies, shed light on the UHECR composition approaching the observed $E_{CR}\approx 10^{20}$ eV cutoff, and uncover any potential new physics responsible of the observed anomalies.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2019

Improved Monte Carlo Glauber predictions at present and future nuclear colliders

We present the results of an improved Monte Carlo Glauber (MCG) model of relevance for collisions involving nuclei at center-of-mass energies of BNL RHIC ($\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}}=0.2$ TeV), CERN LHC ($\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}}=2.76$-$8.8$ TeV), and proposed future hadron colliders ($\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}}\approx 10$-$63$ TeV). The inelastic pp cross sections as a function of $\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}}$ are obtained from a precise data-driven parametrization that exploits the many available measurements at LHC collision energies. We describe the nuclear transverse profile with two separated 2-parameter Fermi distributions for protons and neutrons to account for their different densities close to the nuclear periphery. Furthermore, we model the nucleon degrees of freedom inside the nucleus through a lattice with a minimum nodal separation, combined with a "recentering and reweighting" procedure, that overcomes some limitations of previous MCG approaches. The nuclear overlap function, number of participant nucleons and binary nucleon-nucleon collisions, participant eccentricity and triangularity, overlap area and average path length are presented in intervals of percentile centrality for lead-lead (PbPb) and proton-lead (pPb) collisions at all collision energies. We demonstrate for collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}}=5.02$ TeV that the central values of the Glauber quantities change by up to 7%, in a few bins of reaction centrality, due to the improvements implemented, though typically remain within the previously assigned systematic uncertainties, while their associated uncertainties are generally smaller (mostly below 5%) at all centralities than for earlier calculations. Tables for all quantities versus centrality at present and foreseen collision energies involving Pb nuclei, as well as for collisions of XeXe at $\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}}=5.44$, and AuAu and CuCu at $\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}}=0.2$ TeV, are provided.

nucl-ex↗

arXiv2018

PHOTON-2017 conference proceedings

This document collects the proceedings of the PHOTON 2017 conference ("International Conference on the Structure and the Interactions of the Photon", including the 22th "International Workshop on Photon-Photon Collisions", and the "International Workshop on High Energy Photon Colliders") held at CERN (Geneva) in May 2017. The latest experimental and theoretical developments on the topics of the PHOTON conference series are covered: (i) $γ\,γ$ processes in e$^+$e$^-$, proton-proton (pp) and nucleus-nucleus (AA) collisions at current and future colliders, (ii) $γ$-hadron interactions in e$^\pm$p, pp, and AA collisions, (iii) final-state photon production (including Standard Model studies and searches beyond it) in pp and AA collisions, and (iv) high-energy $γ$-ray astrophysics. These proceedings are dedicated to the memory of Maria Krawczyk.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2018

Impact of QCD jets and heavy-quark production in cosmic-ray proton atmospheric showers up to 10$^{20}$ eV

The PYTHIA 6 Monte Carlo (MC) event generator, commonly used in collider physics, is interfaced for the first time with a fast transport simulation of a hydrogen atmosphere, with the same density as air, in order to study the properties of extended atmospheric showers (EAS) produced by cosmic ray protons with energies E$_{CR}\approx 10^{14}$--$10^{20}$ eV. At variance with the hadronic MC generators (EPOS-LHC, QGSJET, and SIBYLL) commonly used in cosmic-rays physics, PYTHIA includes the generation of harder hadronic jets and heavy (charm and bottom) quarks, thereby producing higher transverse momentum final particles, that could explain several anomalies observed in the data. The electromagnetic, hadronic, and muonic properties of EAS generated with various settings of PYTHIA 6, tuned to proton-proton data measured at the LHC, are compared to those from EPOS-LHC, QGSJET 01, QGSJET II, and SIBYLL 2.1. Despite their different underlying parton dynamics, the characteristics of the EAS generated with PYTHIA 6 are in between those predicted by the rest of MC generators. The only exceptions are the muonic components at large transverse distances from the shower axis, where PYTHIA predicts more activity than the rest of the models. Heavy-quark production, as implemented in this study for a hydrogen atmosphere, does not seem to play a key role in the EAS muon properties, pointing to nuclear effects as responsible of the muon anomalies observed in the air-shower data.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2018

Evidence for light-by-light scattering in ultraperipheral PbPb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}$ = 5.02 TeV

Evidence for light-by-light (LbL) scattering, $γγ\toγγ$, in ultraperipheral PbPb collisions at a nucleon-nucleon center-of-mass energy of 5.02 TeV is reported. LbL scattering processes are selected in events with just two photons produced, with transverse energy $E_T^γ>2$ GeV, pseudorapidity $|η^γ|<2.4$; and diphoton invariant mass $m^{γγ}>5$ GeV, transverse momentum $p_{T}^{γγ}<1$ GeV, and acoplanarity $(1-Δϕ^{γγ}/π)<0.01$. After all selection criteria, 14 events are observed, compared to $11.1 \pm 1.1$ (theo) and $3.8 \pm 1.3$ (stat) events expected for signal and background processes respectively. The significance of the signal excess over the background-only hypothesis is $4.1σ$. The measured fiducial LbL scattering cross section, $σ_{fid}(γγ\toγγ) = 122 \pm 46$ (stat) $\pm 29$ (syst) $\pm 4$ (theo) nb is consistent with the standard model prediction.

hep-ex↗

arXiv2018

$α_s$ status and perspectives (2018)

The latest experimental and theoretical developments in the high-precision determination of the strong coupling $α_s$ are briefly reviewed. Six groups of observables: (i) lattice QCD data, (ii) hadronic $τ$ decays, (iii) deep-inelastic $e^\pm p$ data and parton distribution functions (PDF) fits, (iv) event shapes and jet rates in $e^+e^-$ collisions, (v) Z boson hadronic decays, and (vi) top-quark cross sections in pp collisions, are used to extract the current world-average at the Z pole mass, $α_s(m_Z^2) = 0.1181 \pm 0.0011$ at next-to-next-to-leading-order (NNLO), or beyond, accuracy. Additional NNLO extractions have recently appeared based on new lattice studies, the $R(s)$ ratio in $e^+e^-\to \mbox{hadrons}$, updated PDF fits, energy-energy correlations in $e^+e^-$ collisions, jet cross sections in $e^\pm p$ collisions, and the full set of $pp\to t\bar{t}$ cross sections at the LHC. Inclusion of these new data into the world-average would slightly increase its value and reduce its uncertainty to $α_s(m_Z^2) = 0.1183 \pm 0.0008$. Future $α_s$ extraction perspectives with permille uncertainties at future high-luminosity $e^+e^-$ machines -- via W and Z hadronic decays, parton fragmentation functions, and photon $F_2(x,Q^2)$ structure function in $γγ$ collisions -- are also discussed.

hep-ex↗

arXiv2018

Forward-backward $b$-quark asymmetry at the Z pole: QCD uncertainties redux

The forward-backward asymmetry of $b$-quarks measured at LEP in $e^+e^-$ collisions at the Z pole, $A_{FB}^{0,b}|^{\rm exp} = 0.0992\pm0.0016$, remains today the electroweak precision observable with the largest disagreement (2.8$σ$) with the Standard Model theoretical prediction, $A_{FB}^{0,b}|^{\rm th} = 0.1037\pm0.0008$. The dominant systematic uncertainties are due to QCD effects --- $b,c$-quark showering and fragmentation, and $B,D$ meson decay models --- which have not been revisited in the last 20 years. We reassess the QCD uncertainties of the eight original LEP measurements of $A_{FB}^{0,b}$, using modern parton shower simulations based on PYTHIA-8 and PYTHIA-8 plus VINCIA with different tunes of soft and collinear radiation as well as of hadronization. Our analysis indicates QCD uncertainties, of order $\pm$0.4\% and $\pm$1\% for the jet-charge and lepton-charge based analyses, that are overall slightly smaller but still consistent with the original ones. Using the updated QCD systematic uncertainties, we obtain $A_{FB}^{0,b} = 0.0996\pm0.0016$.

hep-ex↗

arXiv2018

Prospects for $γγ\to$ Higgs observation in ultraperipheral ion collisions at the Future Circular Collider

We study the two-photon production of the Higgs boson, $\rm γγ\to H$, at the Future Circular Collider (FCC) in ultraperipheral PbPb and pPb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}} = 39$ and 63 TeV. Signal and background events are generated with MADGRAPH 5, including $γ$ fluxes from the proton and lead ions in the equivalent photon approximation, yielding $\rm σ(γγ\to H)$ = 1.75 nb and 1.5 pb in PbPb and pPb collisions respectively. We analyse the H$\,\to b\bar{b}$ decay channel including realistic reconstruction efficiencies for the final-state $b$-jets, showered and hadronized with PYTHIA 8, as well as appropriate selection criteria to reduce the dominant exclusive $γγ\to b\bar{b}$ continuum background. Observation of $\rm PbPb\xrightarrow{γγ}(Pb)\,H\,(Pb)$ is achievable in the first year with the expected PbPb integrated luminosities.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2017

Measurements of $γγ\to \mbox{Higgs}$ and $γγ\to W^{+}W^{-}$ in $e^{+}e^{-}$ collisions at the Future Circular Collider

The measurements of the two-photon production of the Higgs boson and of $W^{\pm}$ boson pairs in $e^{+}e^{-}$ collisions at the Future Circular Collider (FCC-ee) are investigated. The processes $e^{+}e^{-}\xrightarrow{γγ}e^+\,{\rm H}\,e^-,e^+\,{\rm W^+W^-}\,e^-$ are computed using the effective photon approximation for electron-positron beams, and studied in their ${\rm H}\to b\bar{b}$ and ${\rm W^+W^-}\to 4j$ decay final-states including parton showering and hadronization, jet reconstruction, $e^\pm$ forward tagging, and realistic experimental cuts. After selection criteria, up to 75 Higgs bosons and 6600 $\rm W^{\pm}$ pairs will be reconstructed on top of controllable continuum backgrounds at $\sqrt{s} = $240 and 350 GeV for the total expected integrated luminosities, by tagging the scattered $e^\pm$ with near-beam detectors. A 5$σ$ observation of $γγ\to$H is thereby warranted, as well as high-statistics studies of triple $\rm γWW$ and quartic $\rm γγWW$ electroweak couplings, improving by at least factors of 2 and 10 the current limits on dimension-6 anomalous quartic gauge couplings.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2017

Top-quark pair production cross sections at NNLO+NNLL in pPb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}$ = 8.16 TeV

Total and fiducial top pair ($t\bar{t}$) production cross sections in proton-lead (pPb) collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}$ = 8.16 TeV are computed at next-to-next-to-leading-order (NNLO) accuracy including next-to-next-to-leading-log (NNLL) gluon resummation, using the CT14 and CT10 proton parton distribution functions (PDF), and the EPPS16 and EPS09 nuclear PDF parametrizations for the lead ion. The total cross sections amount to $σ(pPb\to t\bar{t}+X) = 59.0 \pm 5.3$(CT14+EPPS16)$\,^{+1.6}_{-2.1}$(scale) nb, and $57.5 \pm \,^{+4.3}_{-3.3}$(CT10+EPS09)$\,^{+1.5}_{-2.0}$(scale) nb, with small modifications with respect to the result computed using the free proton PDF alone. The normalized ratio of pPb to pp cross sections (nuclear modification factor) is $R_{pPb} = 1.04 \,^{\pm 0.07(EPPS16)}_{\pm0.03(EPS09)}$. In the lepton+jets decay mode, $t\bar{t} \to b\bar{b} W(\ellν) W(q\bar{q}')$, one expects $\sim$600 $t\bar{t}$ events in the 180 nb$^{-1}$ integrated luminosity collected in pPb collisions at the LHC so far, after typical acceptance and efficiency losses. Differential cross sections at NLO accuracy are presented as a function of transverse momentum and rapidity of the top quarks, and of their decay b-jets and isolated leptons.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2017

Double, triple, and $n$-parton scatterings in high-energy proton and nuclear collisions

The framework to compute the cross sections for the production of particles with high mass and/or large transverse momentum in double- (DPS), triple- (TPS), and in general $n$-parton scatterings, from the corresponding single-parton ($σ_{\rm SPS}$) values in high-energy proton-proton, proton-nucleus, and nucleus-nucleus is reviewed. The basic parameter of the factorized $n$-parton scattering ansatz is an effective cross section $σ_{\rm eff}$ encoding all unknowns about the underlying generalized $n$-parton distribution in the proton (nucleon). In its simplest and most economical form, the $σ_{\rm eff}$ parameter can be derived from the transverse parton profile of the colliding protons and/or nucleus, using a Glauber approach. Numerical examples for the cross sections and yields expected for the concurrent DPS or TPS production of heavy-quarks, quarkonia, and/or gauge bosons in proton and nuclear collisions at LHC and Future Circular Collider (FCC) energies are provided. The obtained cross sections are based on perturbative QCD predictions for $σ_{\rm SPS}$ at next-to-leading-order (NLO) or next-to-NLO (NNLO) accuracy including, when needed, nuclear modifications of the corresponding parton densities.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2017

Physics with ions at the Future Circular Collider

The unique physics opportunities accessible with nuclear collisions at the CERN Future Circular Collider (FCC) are summarized. Lead-lead (PbPb) and proton-lead (pPb) collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}$ = 39 and 63 TeV respectively with $\mathcal{L}_{int}$ = 33 nb$^{-1}$ and 8 pb$^{-1}$ monthly integrated luminosities, will provide unprecedented experimental conditions to study quark-gluon matter at temperatures ${\cal O}$(1 GeV). The following topics are succinctly discussed: (i) charm-quark densities thrice larger than at the LHC, leading to direct heavy-quark impact in the bulk QGP properties, (ii) quarkonia, including $Υ(1S)$, melting at temperatures up to five times above the QCD critical temperature, (iii) access to initial-state nuclear parton distributions (nPDF) at fractional momenta as low as $x\approx 10^{-7}$, (iv) availability of $5\cdot 10^5$ top-quark pairs per run to study the high-$x$ gluon nPDF and the energy loss properties of boosted colour-antennas, (v) study of possible Higgs boson suppression in the QGP, and (vi) high-luminosity $γγ$ (ultraperipheral) collisions at c.m. energies up to 1 TeV.

hep-ex↗

arXiv2017

Parton Radiation and Fragmentation from LHC to FCC-ee

This document collects the proceedings of the "Parton Radiation and Fragmentation from LHC to FCC-ee" workshop (http://indico.cern.ch/e/ee\_jets16) held at CERN in Nov. 2016. The writeup reviews the latest theoretical and experimental developments on parton radiation and parton-hadron fragmentation studies --including analyses of LEP, B-factories, and LHC data-- with a focus on the future perspectives reacheable in $e^+e^-$ measurements at the Future Circular Collider (FCC-ee), with multi-ab$^{-1}$ integrated luminosities yielding 10$^{12}$ and 10$^{8}$ jets from Z and W bosons decays as well as 10$^5$ gluon jets from Higgs boson decays. The main topics discussed are: (i) parton radiation and parton-to-hadron fragmentation functions (splitting functions at NNLO, small-$z$ NNLL resummations, global FF fits including Monte Carlo (MC) and neural-network analyses of the latest Belle/BaBar high-precision data, parton shower MC generators), (ii) jet properties (quark-gluon discrimination, $e^+e^-$ event shapes and multi-jet rates at NNLO+N$^{n}$LL, jet broadening and angularities, jet substructure at small-radius, jet charge determination, $e^+e^-$ jet reconstruction algorithms), (iii) heavy-quark jets (dead cone effect, charm-bottom separation, gluon-to-$b\bar{b}$ splitting), and (iv) non-perturbative QCD phenomena (colour reconnection, baryon and strangeness production, Bose-Einstein and Fermi-Dirac final-state correlations, colour string dynamics: spin effects, helix hadronization).

hep-ph↗

arXiv2017

Top-quark and Higgs boson perspectives at heavy-ion colliders

The perspectives for measuring the top quark and the Higgs boson in nuclear collisions at the LHC and Future Circular Collider (FCC) are summarized. Perturbative QCD calculations at (N)NLO accuracy, including nuclear parton distribution functions, are used to determine their cross sections and visible yields after standard analysis cuts in PbPb and pPb collisions at the LHC ($\sqrt{s_{NN}}$ = 5.5, 8.8 TeV) and FCC ($\sqrt{s_{NN}}$ = 39, 63 TeV). In their "cleanest" decay channels, $\rm t\bar{t}\to b\bar{b} 2 \ell 2ν$ and $\rm H\to γγ, 4\ell$, about 10$^3$ ($10^5$) top-quark and 10 (10$^3$) Higgs-boson events are expected at the LHC (FCC) for their total nominal integrated luminosities. Whereas the $\rm t \bar{t}$ observation is clearcut at both colliders, evidence for Higgs production, perfectly possible at the FCC, requires integrating $\times$30 more luminosities at the LHC.

hep-ex↗

arXiv2017

Higgs physics at the Future Circular Collider

The unique Higgs physics opportunities accessible at the CERN Future Circular Collider (FCC) in electron-positron ($\sqrt{s}$ = 125, 240, 350 GeV) and proton-proton ($\sqrt{s}$ = 100 TeV) collisions, are succinctly summarized. Thanks to the large c.m. energies and enormous luminosities (plus clean experimental conditions in the $e^+e^-$ case), many open fundamental aspects of the Higgs sector of the Standard Model (SM) can be experimentally studied: (i) Measurement of the Higgs Yukawa couplings to the lightest fermions: u,d,s quarks (via rare exclusive $H\to(ρ,ω,ϕ)+γ$ decays); and e$^\pm$ (via resonant s-channel $e^+e^-\to H$ production); as well as neutrinos (within low-scale seesaw mass generation scenarios); (ii) Measurement of the Higgs potential (triple $λ_3$, and quartic $λ_4$ self-couplings), via double and triple Higgs boson production in pp collisions at 100 TeV; (iii) Searches for new physics coupled to the scalar SM sector at scales $Λ>$ 6 TeV, thanks to measurements of the Higgs boson couplings with subpercent uncertainties in $e^+e^-\to H\,Z$; and (iv) Searches for dark matter in Higgs-portal interactions, via high-precision measurements of on-shell and off-shell Higgs boson invisible decays. All these measurements are beyond the reach of pp collisions at the Large Hadron Collider. New higher-energy $e^+e^-$ and pp colliders such as FCC are thus required to complete our understanding of the full set of SM Higgs parameters, as well as to search for new scalar-coupled physics in the multi-TeV regime.

hep-ex↗