arXiv subjects

Davide Napoletano

Publications and source records attributed to Davide Napoletano.

29 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2019

The single-jet inclusive cross-section and its definition

We investigate some well-known problematic aspects of the single-jet inclusive cross-section, specifically its non-unitarity and the possibly related issue of apparent perturbative instability at low orders. We study and clarify their origin by introducing possible alternative weighted definitions of the observable which restore unitarity. We show that the perturbative instability of the standard definition is an accidental artefact of the smallness of the NLO $K$ factor which only manifests itself for values of the jet radius in the range $R\sim 0.3-0.6$, and that its non-unitarity is necessary in order to ensure cancellation of logs of the momentum cutoff used in the jet definition. We also show that alternative unitary definitions do not have better perturbative properties compared to the conventional non-unitary definition, while suffering from lack of cancellation of large logs.

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arXiv2019

Event Generation with Sherpa 2.2

Sherpa is a general-purpose Monte Carlo event generator for the simulation of particle collisions in high-energy collider experiments. We summarize essential features and improvements of the Sherpa 2.2 release series, which is heavily used for event generation in the analysis and interpretation of LHC Run 1 and Run 2 data. We highlight a decade of developments towards ever higher precision in the simulation of particle-collision events.

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arXiv2019

V and heavy flavour production: status and recent theoretical developments

In this talk, we review the status of the associated production of a vector boson and heavy flavour quarks, and some recent theoretical developments. While some aspects of these multiscale processes are not yet completely under control, a general understanding on how to treat them is emerging, thanks to many efforts to match a completely massless, with a completely massive approach.

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arXiv2019

Fitting the b-quark PDF as a massive-b scheme: Higgs production in bottom fusion

We show that a simple and accurate approach to the computation of hadron collider processes involving initial-state $b$ quarks can be obtained by introducing an independently parametrized b PDF. We use the so-called FONLL method for the matching of a scheme in which the b quark is treated as a massless parton to that in which it is treated as a massive state, and extend it to the case in which the b quark PDF is not necessarily determined by perturbative matching conditions. This generalizes to hadronic collisions analogous results previously obtained for deep-inelastic scattering. The results corresponds to a `massive b' scheme, in which b mass effects are retained, yet the b quark is endowed with a PDF. We specifically study Higgs production in bottom fusion, and show that our approach overcomes difficulties related to the fact that in a standard massive four-flavor scheme b-quark induced processes only start at high perturbative orders.

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arXiv2018

Towards a fully massive five-flavour scheme

In this work we explore first necessary steps to contruct a fully massive version of a variable flavour number scheme. In particular we focus, as an example, on an extension of the five-flavour scheme, where instead of neglecting explicit initial state quark mass effects, we retain all massive dependence, while keeping the resummation properties of the massless five-flavour scheme. We name this scheme five-flavour-massive (5FMS) scheme. Apart from consistently modified parton distribution functions, we provide all the ingredients that are needed to implement this scheme at MC@NLO accuracy, in a Monte Carlo event generator. As proof of concept we implement this scheme in SHERPA, and perfom a comparison of the new scheme with traditional ones for the simple process of scalar particle production in bottom quark fusion.

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arXiv2018

Computing $N$-subjettiness for boosted jets

Jet substructure tools have proven useful in a number of high-energy particle-physics studies. A particular case is the discrimination, or tagging, between a boosted jet originated from an electroweak boson (signal), and a standard QCD parton (background). A common way to achieve this is to cut on a measure of the radiation inside the jet, i.e. a jet shape. Over the last few years, analytic calculations of jet substructure have allowed for a deeper understanding of these tools and for the development of more efficient ones. However, analytic calculations are often limited to the region where the jet shape is small. In this paper we introduce a new approach in perturbative QCD to compute jet shapes for a generic boosted jets, waiving the above limitation. We focus on an example common in the substructure literature: the jet mass distribution after a cut on the $N$-subjettiness $τ_{21}$ ratio, extending previous works to the region relevant for phenomenology. We compare our analytic predictions to Monte Carlo simulations for both plain and SoftDrop-groomed jets. We use our results to construct analytically a decorrelated tagger.

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arXiv2018

Heavy quark mass effects in associated production

Processes involving heavy quarks in associated production, are usually described in two factorisation schemes: one in which the heavy quark is treated as an infinitely massive object, decoupled from QCD evolution, and one in which it is treated on the same footing of a light quark. These two approaches only differ by the inclusion of mass suppressed terms or in the resummation of a certain class of logarithms. In view of recent results, in this talk, we present recent developments that extend a phenomenological scheme, that tries to incorporate the best of both worlds, to \NLO in Monte Carlo event generation.

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arXiv2018

$b$ quark mass effects in associated production

In this work we study an extension of the commonly used 5F scheme, where $b$ quarks are treated as massless partons, in which full mass effects are retained in both the initial and in the final state. We name this scheme 5F massive scheme (5FMS). We implement this scheme in the \Sherpa Monte Carlo event generator at MEPS@NLO accuracy, and we compare it for two relevant cases for the LHC: $b\bar{b} \rightarrow H$ and $pp\rightarrow Zb$.

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arXiv2017

Bottom-quark mass effects in associated production with $Z$ and $H$ bosons

In this study, predictions obtained in the four and in the five flavour schemes are compared for two important processes involving heavy flavours at the LHC: the production of a $Z$ or a Higgs boson in association with $b$ quarks. In particular we obtain predictions with \Sherpa's \MCatNLO implementation for the four--flavour scheme, treating the $b$'s as massive, and with multijet merging at leading and next-to leading order for the five--flavour scheme. While differences between the two schemes, at the inclusive level, are well understood from resummation of possibly large logs into the $b$-PDFs, differences in shape present a major problem for experimental measurements. We make use of data for $Z+b(\bar{b})$ production at the $7$ TeV LHC to exhibit strengths and weaknesses of the different approaches and we use these results to validate predictions for $b$-associated Higgs-boson production at the 13 TeV Run II.

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arXiv2016

Simulating $b$-associated production of $Z$ and Higgs bosons with SHERPA

We compare four-- and five--flavour scheme predictions for $b$-associated production of $Z$ and Higgs bosons. The results are obtained with \Sherpa's MC@NLOimplementation for the four--flavour scheme, treating the $b$'s as massive, and with multijet merging at leading and next-to leading order for the five--flavour schemes. Comparison with data for $Z+b(\bar{b})$ production at the $7$ TeV LHC exhibit strengths and weaknesses of the different approaches and are used to validate predictions for $b$-associated Higgs-boson production at the 13 TeV Run II.

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arXiv2015

Higgs production in bottom-quark fusion in a matched scheme

We compute the total cross-section for Higgs boson production in bottom-quark fusion using the so-called FONLL method for the matching of a scheme in which the $b$-quark is treated as a massless parton to that in which it is treated as a massive final-state particle. We discuss the general framework for the application of the FONLL method to this process, and then we present explicit expressions for the case in which the next-to-next-to-leading-log five-flavor scheme result is combined with the leading-order $\cal O(α_s^2)$ four-flavor scheme computation. We compare our results in this case to the four-and five-flavor scheme computations, and to the so-called Santander matching.

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