arXiv subjects

M. Klasen

Publications and source records attributed to M. Klasen.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2022

Probing a leptophobic top-colour model with cross section measurements and precise signal and background predictions: a case study

The sensitivity of particle-level fiducial cross section measurements from ATLAS, CMS and LHCb to a leptophobic top-colour model is studied. The model has previously been the subject of resonance searches. Here we compare it directly to state-of-the-art predictions for Standard Model top quark production and also take into account next-to-leading order predictions for the new physics signal. We make use of the CONTUR framework to evaluate the sensitivity of the current measurements, first under the default CONTUR assumption that the measurement and the SM exactly coincide, and then using the full SM theory calculation for $t\bar{t}$ at next-to-leading and next-to-next-to-leading order as the background model. We derive exclusion limits, discuss the differences between these approaches, and compare to the limits from resonance searches by ATLAS and CMS.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2022

Soft gluon resummation for associated squark-electroweakino production at the LHC

We perform a threshold resummation calculation for the associated production of squarks and electroweakinos at the LHC to the next-to-leading logarithmic (NLL) accuracy. Analytical results for the process-dependent soft anomalous dimension and the hard matching coefficient are presented. The resummed results are matched to fixed-order predictions at next-to-leading order (NLO) in QCD, which are generalised to scenarios with non-universal squark masses and mixings. Numerically, the NLL contributions increase the total NLO cross section by $2\%$ to $6\%$ for squark masses ranging from 1 TeV to 3 TeV, respectively, and they reduce the dependence of the predictions on the factorisation and renormalisation scales from typically $\pm10\%$ to below $\pm5\%$. Our NLO and NLO+NLL calculations have been implemented in the publicly available program Resummino.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2022

Compatibility of Neutrino DIS Data and Its Impact on Nuclear Parton Distribution Functions

In global analyses of nuclear parton distribution functions (nPDFs), neutrino deep-inelastic scattering (DIS) data have been argued to exhibit tensions with the data from charged-lepton DIS. Using the nCTEQ framework, we investigate these possible tensions both internally and with the data sets used in our recent nPDF analysis nCTEQ15WZSIH. We take into account nuclear effects in the calculation of the deuteron structure function $F_2^D$ using the CJ15 analysis. The resulting nPDF fit, nCTEQ15WZSIHdeut, serves as the basis for our comparison with inclusive neutrino DIS and charm dimuon production data. Using $χ^2$ hypothesis testing, we confirm evidence of tensions with these data and study the impact of the proton PDF baseline as well as the treatment of data correlation and normalization uncertainties. We identify the experimental data and kinematic regions that generate the tensions and present several possible approaches how a consistent global analysis with neutrino data can be performed. We show that the tension can be relieved using a kinematic cut at low $x$ ($x>0.1$) and also investigate a possibility of managing the tensions by using uncorrelated systematic errors. Finally, we present a different approach identifying a subset of neutrino data which leads to a consistent global analysis without any additional cuts. Understanding these tensions between the neutrino and charged-lepton DIS data is important not only for a better flavor separation in global analyses of nuclear and proton PDFs, but also for neutrino physics and for searches for physics beyond the Standard Model.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2022

Exploring Contur beyond its default mode: a case study

We discuss Contur's different modes by studying a leptophobic Top-Colour (TC) model. We use, for the first time, higher order calculations for both the signal (NLO) and the background (up to NNLO). We compare the results between the different approaches of Contur. Furthermore, we compare these results to the ones coming from a direct search.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2022

Impact of heavy quark and quarkonium data on nuclear gluon PDFs

A clear understanding of nuclear parton distribution functions (nPDFs) plays a crucial role in the interpretation of collider data taken at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC), the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) and in the near future at the Electron-Ion Collider (EIC). Even with the recent inclusions of vector boson and light meson production data, the uncertainty of the gluon PDF remains substantial and limits the interpretation of heavy ion collision data. To obtain new constraints on the nuclear gluon PDF, we extend our recent nCTEQ15WZ+SIH analysis to inclusive quarkonium and open heavy-flavor meson production data from the LHC. This vast new data set covers a wide kinematic range and puts strong constraints on the nuclear gluon PDF down to $x\lesssim 10^{-5}$. The theoretical predictions for these data sets are obtained from a data-driven approach, where proton-proton data are used to determine effective scattering matrix elements. This approach is validated with detailed comparisons to existing next-to-leading order (NLO) calculations in non-relativistic QCD (NRQCD) for quarkonia and in the general-mass variable-flavor-number scheme (GMVFNS) for the open heavy-flavored mesons. In addition, the uncertainties from the data-driven approach are determined using the Hessian method and accounted for in the PDF fits. This extension of our previous analyses represents an important step toward the next generation of PDFs not only by including new data sets, but also by exploring new methods for future analyses.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2022

Impact of W and Z Production Data and Compatibility of Neutrino DIS Data in Nuclear Parton Distribution Functions

Vector boson production and neutrino deep-inelastic scattering (DIS) data are crucial for constraining the strange quark parton distribution function (PDF) and more generally for flavor decomposition in PDF extractions. We extend the nCTEQ15 nuclear PDFs (nPDFs) by adding the recent $W$ and $Z$ production data from the LHC in a global nPDF fit. The new nPDF set, referred to as nCTEQ15WZ, is used as a starting point for a follow-up study in which we assess the compatibility of neutrino DIS data with charged lepton DIS data. Specifically, we re-analyze neutrino DIS data from NuTeV, Chorus, and CDHSW, as well as dimuon data from CCFR and NuTeV. To scrutinize the level of compatibility, different kinematic regions of the neutrino data are investigated. Fits to the neutrino data alone and a preliminary global fit are performed and compared to nCTEQ15WZ.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2021

How large is the diffractive contribution to inclusive dijet photoproduction in UPCs at the LHC?

Using next-to-leading order (NLO) perturbative QCD, we calculate the diffractive contribution to inclusive dijet photoproduction in Pb-Pb ultraperipheral collisions (UPCs) at the LHC and find that it does not exceed $5-10$% in small-$x_A$ bins in the ATLAS kinematics at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}=5.02$ TeV. Its smallness is a result of the restricted kinematics ($p_{T1} > 20$ GeV and $x_A > 0.001$), the large nuclear suppression of nuclear diffractive parton distribution functions predicted in the leading twist model of nuclear shadowing, and additional suppression due to QCD factorization breaking in diffraction. At the same time, using looser $p_T$ cuts, e.g., $p_{T1} > 10$ GeV and $p_{T i\neq 1} > 5-7$ GeV, we find that $(dσ_{\rm diff}/dx_A)/(dσ_{\rm inc}/dx_A)$ can reach $10-20$% at $x \approx 5 \times 10^{-4}$. Also, applying our framework to proton-proton UPCs at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}=13$ TeV, we find that the ratio of the diffractive and inclusive cross sections of dijet photoproduction $(dσ_{\rm diff}/dx_p)/(dσ_{\rm inc}/dx_p)$ is as large as $10-15$% for $x_p \sim 5 \times 10^{-4}$. An account of the contribution of Pomeron-Pomeron scattering, which is not included in our analysis, should make this ratio somewhat larger.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2021

What a direct neutrino mass measurement might teach us about the dark sector

Searches for Dark Matter suggest that it couples to ordinary matter only very weakly and possibly only through the Higgs or other scalar bosons. On the other hand, neutrinos might not couple to the Higgs boson directly, but only through a loop of Dark Matter particles, which would naturally explain the small neutrino masses. We demonstrate that current experimental constraints on such a ``scotogenic'' scenario allow to make the linear dependence of the lightest neutrino mass on the dark sector-Higgs coupling explicit, so that a measurement by the KATRIN experiment would directly determine its value.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2021

Impact of inclusive hadron production data on nuclear gluon PDFs

A precise knowledge of nuclear parton distribution functions (nPDFs) is -- among other things -- important for the unambiguous interpretation of hard process data taken in pA and AA collisions at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) and the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). The available fixed target data for deep inelastic scattering (DIS) and Drell-Yan (DY) lepton pair production mainly constrain the light quark distributions. It is hence crucial to include more and more collider data in global analyses of nPDFs in order to better pin down the different parton flavors, in particular the gluon distribution at small x. To help constrain the nuclear gluon PDF, we extend the nCTEQ15 analysis by including single inclusive hadron (SIH) production data from RHIC (PHENIX and STAR) and LHC (ALICE). In addition to the DIS, DY and SIH data sets, we will also include LHC W/Z production data. As the SIH calculation is dependent on hadronic fragmentation functions (FFs), we use a variety of FFs available in the literature to properly estimate this source of uncertainty. We study the impact of these data on the PDFs, and compare with both the nCTEQ15 and nCTEQ15WZ sets. The calculations are performed using a new implementation of the nCTEQ code (nCTEQ++) including a modified version of INCNLO which allows faster calculations using pre-computed grids. The extension of the nCTEQ15 analysis to include the SIH data represents an important step toward the next generation of PDFs.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2021

nCTEQ15HIX -- Extending nPDF Analyses into the High-$x$, Low $Q^2$ Region

We use the nCTEQ analysis framework to investigate nuclear Parton Distribution Functions (nPDFs) in the region of large x and intermediate-to-low $Q$, with special attention to recent JLab Deep Inelastic Scattering data on nuclear targets. This data lies in a region which is often excluded by $W$ and $Q$ cuts in global nPDF analyses. As we relax these cuts, we enter a new kinematic region, which requires new phenomenology. In particular, we study the impact of i) target mass corrections, ii) higher twist corrections, iii) deuteron corrections, and iv) the shape of the nuclear PDF parametrization at large-$x$ close to one. Using the above tools, we produce a new nPDF set (named nCTEQ15HIX) which yields a good description of the new JLab data in this challenging kinematic region, and displays reduced uncertainties at large $x$, in particular for up and down quark flavors.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2021

Constraining the nuclear gluon PDF with inclusive hadron production data

The nuclear parton distribution functions (nPDFs) of gluons are known to be difficult to determine with fits of deep inelastic scattering (DIS) and Drell-Yan (DY) data alone. Therefore, the nCTEQ15 analysis of nuclear PDFs added inclusive neutral pion production data from RHIC to help in constraining the gluon. In this analysis, we present a new global analysis of nuclear PDFs based on a much larger set of single inclusive light hadron data from RHIC and the LHC. Using our new nCTEQ code (nCTEQ++) with an optimized version of INCNLO we study systematically the limitations of the theory and the impact of the fragmentation function uncertainty.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2021

Inclusive and diffractive dijet photoproduction in ultraperipheral heavy ion collisions at the LHC

We calculate the cross section of inclusive dijet photoproduction in ultraperipheral collisions (UPCs) of heavy ions at the CERN Large Hadron Collider using next-to-leading order perturbative QCD and demonstrate that it provides a good description of the ATLAS data. We study the role of this data in constraining nuclear parton distribution functions (nPDFs) using the Bayesian reweighting technique and find that it can reduce current uncertainties of nPDFs at small $x$ by a factor of 2. We also make predictions for diffractive dijet photoproduction in UPCs and examine its potential to shed light on the disputed mechanism of QCD factorization breaking in diffraction.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2021

Indirect detection constraints on the scotogenic dark matter model

Radiative seesaw models have the attractive property of providing dark matter candidates in addition to the generation of neutrino masses. Here we present a study of neutrino signals from the annihilation of dark matter particles that have been gravitationally captured in the Sun in the framework of the scotogenic model. We compute expected event rates in the IceCube detector in its 86-string configuration. As fermionic dark matter does not scatter off nucleons due to its singlet nature and therefore does not accumulate in the Sun, we study the case of scalar dark matter with a scan over the parameter space. Due to a naturally small mass splitting between the two neutral scalar components, inelastic scattering processes with nucleons can occur. We find that for most of the parameter space, i.e. for mass splittings below 500 keV, inelastic scattering in the Sun yields IceCube event rates above 10 events per year, whereas direct detection on Earth is sensitive only to 250 keV. Consequently, a detailed analysis with IceCube could lead to a lower limit on the scalar coupling $λ_5\gtrsim1.6\cdot10^{-5}\cdot m_{DM}$/TeV. For larger mass splittings, only elastic scattering occurs in the Sun. In this case, XENON1T limits only allow for models with expected event rates of up to O(0.1) per year. Some of these models, in particular those with large DM mass and fermion coannihilation, could also be tested with a dedicated IceCube analysis of DM annihilation in the Galactic Center.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2021

Prospects for diffractive dijet photoproduction at the EIC

We discuss the prospects of diffractive dijet photoproduction at the EIC to distinguish different fits of diffractive proton PDFs, different schemes of factorization breaking, to determine diffractive nuclear PDFs and pion PDFs from leading neutron production.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2021

New constraints on radiative seesaw models from IceCube and other neutrino detectors

Dark matter (DM) scattering and its subsequent capture in the Sun can boost the local relic density, leading to an enhanced neutrino flux from DM annihilations that is in principle detectable at neutrino telescopes. We calculate the event rates expected for a radiative seesaw model containing both scalar triplet and singlet-doublet fermion DM candidates. In the case of scalar DM, the absence of a spin dependent scattering on nuclei results in a low capture rate in the Sun, which is reflected in an event rate of less than one per year in the current IceCube configuration with 86 strings. For singlet-doublet fermion DM, there is a spin dependent scattering process next to the spin independent one, which significantly boosts the event rate and thus makes indirect detection competitive with respect to the direct detection limits imposed by PICO-60. Due to a correlation between both scattering processes, the limits on the spin independent cross section set by XENON1T exclude also parts of the parameter space that can be probed at IceCube. Previously obtained limits by ANTARES, IceCube and Super-Kamiokande from the Sun and the Galactic Center are shown to be much weaker.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2021

Impact of scale, nuclear PDF and temperature variations on the interpretation of medium-modified jet production data from the LHC

In this paper we present a study of in-medium jet modifications performed with JEWEL and PYTHIA 6.4, focusing on the uncertainties related to variations of the perturbative scales and nuclear parton distribution functions (PDFs) and on the impact of the initial and crossover temperature variations of the medium. The simulations are compared to LHC data for the jet spectrum and the nuclear modification factor. We assess the interplay between the choice of nuclear PDFs and different medium parameters and study the impact of nuclear PDFs and the medium on the jet structure via the Lund plane.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2021

Precise predictions for electroweak $t\bar t$ production at the LHC in models with flavour non-diagonal $Z'$ boson couplings and $W'$ bosons

We report on our re-calculation of electroweak top-quark pair production in Standard Model extensions with extra heavy neutral and charged spin-1 particles at the LHC with substantial improvements. In particular, we allow for flavour--non-diagonal $Z'$ couplings and take into account non-resonant production in the Standard Model and beyond. As in our previous work we include NLO QCD corrections and match to parton showers with the POWHEG method fully taking into account the Standard Model and new physics interference effects. We consider the Sequential Standard Model, the Topcolour model as well as the Third Family Hypercharge Model featuring non-flavour diagonal $Z'$ couplings which has been proposed to explain the anomalies in $B$ decays. Numerical results for $t\bar{t}$ cross sections at hadron colliders with $\sqrt{s}$ of up to 100 TeV are presented. We also investigate the numerical impact of the new non-resonant contributions.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2020

Next-to-leading order QCD predictions for dijet photoproduction in lepton-nucleus scattering at the future EIC and at possible LHeC, HE-LHeC, and FCC facilities

We calculate cross sections for inclusive dijet photoproduction in electron-nucleus scattering in the kinematics of the future EIC and the possible LHeC, HE-LHeC, and the FCC using next-to-leading order (NLO) perturbative QCD and nCTEQ15 and EPPS16 nuclear parton density functions (nPDFs). We make predictions for distributions in the dijet average transverse momentum ${\bar p}_T$, the average rapidity $\barη$, the observed nuclear momentum fraction $x_A^{\rm obs}$, and the observed photon momentum fraction $x_γ^{\rm obs}$. Comparing the kinematic reaches of the four colliders, we find that an increase of the collision energy from the EIC to the LHeC and beyond extends the coverage in all four considered variables. Notably, the LHeC and HE-LHeC will allow one to probe the dijet cross section down to $x_A^{\rm obs} \sim 10^{-4}$ (down to $x_A^{\rm obs} \sim 10^{-5}$ at the FCC). The ratio of the dijet cross sections on a nucleus and the proton, $σ_A/(Aσ_p)$, depends on $x_A^{\rm obs}$ in a similar way as the ratio of gluon densities, $g_A(x_A,μ^2)/[A g_p(x_A,μ^2)]$, for which current nPDFs predict a strong suppression due to nuclear shadowing in the region $x_A^{\rm obs} < 0.01$. Dijet photoproduction at future lepton-nucleus colliders can therefore be used to test this prediction and considerably reduce the current uncertainties of nPDFs.

hep-ph↗