arXiv subjects
Publications and source records attributed to J. Currie.
The antenna subtraction method for NNLO QCD calculations is implemented in the NNLOJET parton-level event generator code to compute jet cross sections and related observables in electron-positron, lepton-hadron and hadron-hadron collisions. We describe the open-source NNLOJET code and its usage.
We provide an overview of the status of Monte-Carlo event generators for high-energy particle physics. Guided by the experimental needs and requirements, we highlight areas of active development, and opportunities for future improvements. Particular emphasis is given to physics models and algorithms that are employed across a variety of experiments. These common themes in event generator development lead to a more comprehensive understanding of physics at the highest energies and intensities, and allow models to be tested against a wealth of data that have been accumulated over the past decades. A cohesive approach to event generator development will allow these models to be further improved and systematic uncertainties to be reduced, directly contributing to future experimental success. Event generators are part of a much larger ecosystem of computational tools. They typically involve a number of unknown model parameters that must be tuned to experimental data, while maintaining the integrity of the underlying physics models. Making both these data, and the analyses with which they have been obtained accessible to future users is an essential aspect of open science and data preservation. It ensures the consistency of physics models across a variety of experiments.
The HERAPDF2.0 ensemble of parton distribution functions (PDFs) was introduced in 2015. The final stage is presented, a next-to-next-to-leading-order (NNLO) analysis of the HERA data on inclusive deep inelastic $ep$ scattering together with jet data as published by the H1 and ZEUS collaborations. A perturbative QCD fit, simultaneously of $\alpha_s(M_Z^2)$ and and the PDFs, was performed with the result $\alpha_s(M_Z^2) = 0.1156 \pm 0.0011~{\rm (exp)}~ ^{+0.0001}_{-0.0002}~ {\rm (model}$ ${\rm +~parameterisation)}~ \pm 0.0029~{\rm (scale)}$. The PDF sets of HERAPDF2.0Jets NNLO were determined with separate fits using two fixed values of $\alpha_s(M_Z^2)$, $\alpha_s(M_Z^2)=0.1155$ and $0.118$, since the latter value was already chosen for the published HERAPDF2.0 NNLO analysis based on HERA inclusive DIS data only. The different sets of PDFs are presented, evaluated and compared. The consistency of the PDFs determined with and without the jet data demonstrates the consistency of HERA inclusive and jet-production cross-section data. The inclusion of the jet data reduced the uncertainty on the gluon PDF. Predictions based on the PDFs of HERAPDF2.0Jets NNLO give an excellent description of the jet-production data used as input.
The Large Hadron electron Collider (LHeC) is designed to move the field of deep inelastic scattering (DIS) to the energy and intensity frontier of particle physics. Exploiting energy recovery technology, it collides a novel, intense electron beam with a proton or ion beam from the High Luminosity--Large Hadron Collider (HL-LHC). The accelerator and interaction region are designed for concurrent electron-proton and proton-proton operation. This report represents an update of the Conceptual Design Report (CDR) of the LHeC, published in 2012. It comprises new results on parton structure of the proton and heavier nuclei, QCD dynamics, electroweak and top-quark physics. It is shown how the LHeC will open a new chapter of nuclear particle physics in extending the accessible kinematic range in lepton-nucleus scattering by several orders of magnitude. Due to enhanced luminosity, large energy and the cleanliness of the hadronic final states, the LHeC has a strong Higgs physics programme and its own discovery potential for new physics. Building on the 2012 CDR, the report represents a detailed updated design of the energy recovery electron linac (ERL) including new lattice, magnet, superconducting radio frequency technology and further components. Challenges of energy recovery are described and the lower energy, high current, 3-turn ERL facility, PERLE at Orsay, is presented which uses the LHeC characteristics serving as a development facility for the design and operation of the LHeC. An updated detector design is presented corresponding to the acceptance, resolution and calibration goals which arise from the Higgs and parton density function physics programmes. The paper also presents novel results on the Future Circular Collider in electron-hadron mode, FCC-eh, which utilises the same ERL technology to further extend the reach of DIS to even higher centre-of-mass energies.
The extension of interpolation-grid frameworks for perturbative QCD calculations at next-to-next-to-leading order (NNLO) is presented for deep inelastic scattering (DIS) processes. A fast and flexible evaluation of higher-order predictions for any a posteriori choice of parton distribution functions (PDFs) or value of the strong coupling constant is essential in iterative fitting procedures to extract PDFs and Standard Model parameters as well as for a detailed study of the scale dependence. The APPLfast project, described here, provides a generic interface between the parton-level Monte Carlo program NNLOJET and both the APPLgrid and fastNLO libraries for the production of interpolation grids at NNLO accuracy. Details of the interface for DIS processes are presented together with the required interpolation grids at NNLO, which are made available. They cover numerous inclusive jet measurements by the H1 and ZEUS experiments at HERA. An extraction of the strong coupling constant is performed as an application of the use of such grids and a best-fit value of $\alpha_s(M_Z) = 0.1178\,(15)_\text{exp}\,(21)_\text{th}$ is obtained using the HERA inclusive jet cross section data.
Hard processes in diffractive deep-inelastic scattering can be described by a factorisation into parton-level subprocesses and diffractive parton distributions. In this framework, cross sections for inclusive dijet production in diffractive deep-inelastic electron-proton scattering (DIS) are computed to next-to-next-to-leading order (NNLO) QCD accuracy and compared to a comprehensive selection of data. Predictions for the total cross sections, 39 single-differential and four double-differential distributions for six measurements at HERA by the H1 and ZEUS collaborations are calculated. In the studied kinematical range, the NNLO corrections are found to be sizeable and positive. The NNLO predictions typically exceed the data, while the kinematical shape of the data is described better at NNLO than at next-to-leading order (NLO). A significant reduction of the scale uncertainty is achieved in comparison to NLO predictions. Our results use the currently available NLO diffractive parton distributions, and the discrepancy in normalisation highlights the need for a consistent determination of these distributions at NNLO accuracy.
Computations of higher-order QCD corrections for processes with exclusive final states require a subtraction method for real-radiation contributions. We present the first-ever generalisation of a subtraction method for third-order (N3LO) QCD corrections. The Projection-to-Born method is used to combine inclusive N3LO coefficient functions with an exclusive second-order (NNLO) calculation for a final state with an extra jet. The input requirements, advantages, and potential applications of the method are discussed, and validations at lower orders are performed. As a test case, we compute the N3LO corrections to kinematical distributions and production rates for single-jet production in deep inelastic scattering in the laboratory frame, and compare them with data from the ZEUS experiment at HERA. The corrections are small in the central rapidity region, where they stabilize the predictions to sub per-cent level. The corrections increase substantially towards forward rapidity where large logarithmic effects are expected, thereby yielding an improved description of the data in this region.
The strong coupling constant $\alpha_s(M_Z)$ is determined from inclusive jet and dijet cross sections in neutral-current deep-inelastic $ep$ scattering (DIS) measured at HERA by the H1 collaboration using next-to-next-to-leading order (NNLO) QCD predictions. The dependence of the NNLO predictions and of the resulting value of $\alpha_s(M_Z)$ at the $Z$-boson mass $m_Z$ are studied as a function of the choice of the renormalisation and factorisation scales. Using inclusive jet and dijet data together, the strong coupling constant is determined to be $\alpha_s(M_Z)=0.1166\,(19)_{\rm exp}\,(24)_{\rm th}$. Complementary, $\alpha_s(M_Z)$ is determined together with parton distribution functions of the proton (PDFs) from jet and inclusive DIS data measured by the H1 experiment. The value $\alpha_s(M_Z)=0.1147\,(25)_{\rm tot}$ obtained is consistent with the determination from jet data alone. The impact of the jet data on the PDFs is studied. The running of the strong coupling is tested at different values of the renormalisation scale and the results are found to be in agreement with expectations.