arXiv subjects

Marco Stratmann

Publications and source records attributed to Marco Stratmann.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2014

Evidence for polarization of gluons in the proton

We discuss the impact of recent high-statistics RHIC data on the determination of the gluon polarization in the proton in the context of a global QCD analysis of polarized parton distributions. We find clear evidence for a non-vanishing polarization of gluons in the region of momentum fraction and at the scales mostly probed by the data. Although information from low momentum fractions is presently lacking, this finding is suggestive of a significant contribution of gluon spin to the proton spin, thereby limiting the amount of orbital angular momentum required to balance the proton spin budget.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2013

On the Practical Application of Physical Anomalous Dimensions

We revive the idea of using physical anomalous dimensions in the QCD scale evolution of deep-inelastic structure functions and their scaling violations and present a detailed phenomenological study of its applicability. Differences with results obtained in the conventional framework of scale-dependent quark and gluon densities are discussed and traced back to the truncation of the perturbative series at a given order in the strong coupling.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2013

Prospects for Charged Current Deep-Inelastic Scattering off Polarized Nucleons at a Future Electron-Ion Collider

We present a detailed phenomenological study of charged-current-mediated deep-inelastic scattering off longitudinally polarized nucleons at a future Electron-Ion Collider. A new version of the event generator package DJANGOH, extended by capabilities to handle processes with polarized nucleons, is introduced and used to simulate charged current deep-inelastic scattering including QED, QCD, and electroweak radiative effects. We carefully explore the range of validity and the accuracy of the Jacquet-Blondel method to reconstruct the relevant kinematic variables from the measured hadronic final state in charged current events, assuming realistic detector performance parameters. Finally, we estimate the impact of the simulated charged current single-spin asymmetries on determinations of helicity parton distributions in the context of a global QCD analysis at next-to-leading order accuracy.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2013

The RHIC Spin Program: Achievements and Future Opportunities

This document summarizes recent achievements of the RHIC spin program and their impact on our understanding of the nucleon's spin structure, i.e. the individual parton (quark and gluon) contributions to the helicity structure of the nucleon and to understand the origin of the transverse spin phenomena. Open questions are identified and a suite of future measurements with polarized beams at RHIC to address them is laid out. Machine and detector requirements and upgrades are briefly discussed.

nucl-ex↗

arXiv2012

Longitudinally Polarized Photoproduction of Heavy Flavors at Next-to-Leading Order of QCD

We present a phenomenological study of charm quark photoproduction in longitudinally polarized lepton-hadron collisions at next-to-leading order accuracy of QCD. Our results are based on a recently developed, flexible parton-level Monte Carlo program for spin-dependent heavy flavor hadroproduction, which we extend to deal also with both direct and resolved photon contributions. The subsequent hadronization into charmed mesons is modeled in our calculations, which allows us to compare with data on double-spin asymmetries for D0 meson production taken by the COMPASS collaboration. In general, next-to-leading order QCD corrections are found to be very significant and do not cancel in spin asymmetries. We elucidate the role of the individual hard scattering subprocesses and determine the range of parton momentum fractions predominantly probed for charm production at COMPASS. Theoretical uncertainties are estimated by varying renormalization and factorization scales and parameters controlling the hadronization of the charm quarks.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2012

Uncertainties in pion and kaon fragmentation functions

We present a detailed assessment of uncertainties in parton-to-pion and parton-to-kaon fragmentation functions obtained in recent global QCD analyses of single-inclusive hadron production data at next-to-leading order accuracy. We use the robust Lagrange multiplier approach for determining uncertainties to validate the applicability of the simpler but approximate Hessian method. Extensive comparisons of the results obtained within both methods are presented for the individual parton-to-pion and kaon fragmentation functions. We provide Hessian eigenvector sets of pion and kaon fragmentation functions that allow one to easily propagate their uncertainties to any observable. Various applications of these sets are presented for pion and kaon production in electron-positron annihilation, lepton-nucleon scattering, and proton-proton collisions.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2012

Helicity Parton Distributions at a Future Electron-Ion Collider: A Quantitative Appraisal

We present a quantitative assessment of the impact a future electron-ion collider will have on determinations of helicity quark and gluon densities and their contributions to the proton spin. Our results are obtained by performing a series of global QCD analyses at next-to-leading order accuracy based on realistic sets of pseudo-data for the inclusive and semi-inclusive deep-inelastic scattering of longitudinally polarized electrons and protons at different, conceivable center-of-mass system energies.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2012

Global Analysis of Nuclear PDFs

We present a new global QCD analysis of nuclear parton distribution functions. In addition to the most commonly analyzed data sets for deep inelastic scattering of charged leptons off nuclei and Drell Yan di-lepton production, we include also measurements for neutrino-nuclei scattering as well as inclusive pion production in deuteron-gold collisions. The emerging picture is one of consistency, where universal nuclear modification factors for each parton flavor reproduce the main features of all data without any significant tension among the different sets.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2011

Global Analysis of Nuclear Parton Distributions

We present a new global QCD analysis of nuclear parton distribution functions and their uncertainties. In addition to the most commonly analyzed data sets for the deep-inelastic scattering of charged leptons off nuclei and Drell-Yan di-lepton production, we include also measurements for neutrino-nucleus scattering and inclusive pion production in deuteron-gold collisions. The analysis is performed at next-to-leading order accuracy in perturbative QCD in a general mass variable flavor number scheme, adopting a current set of free nucleon parton distribution functions, defined accordingly, as reference. The emerging picture is one of consistency, where universal nuclear modification factors for each parton flavor reproduce the main features of all data without any significant tension among the different sets. We use the Hessian method to estimate the uncertainties of the obtained nuclear modification factors and examine critically their range of validity in view of the sparse kinematic coverage of the present data. We briefly present several applications of our nuclear parton densities in hard nuclear reactions at BNL-RHIC, CERN-LHC, and a future electron-ion collider.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2009

Fragmentations Functions in Nuclear Media

We perform a detailed phenomenological analysis of how well hadronization in nuclear environments can be described in terms of effective fragmentation functions. The medium modified fragmentation functions are assumed to factorize from the partonic scattering cross sections and evolve in the hard scale in the same way as the standard or vacuum fragmentation functions. Based on precise data on semi-inclusive deep-inelastic scattering off nuclei and hadron production in deuteron-gold collisions, we extract sets of effective fragmentation functions for pions and kaons at NLO accuracy. The obtained sets provide a rather accurate description of the kinematical dependence of the analyzed cross sections and are found to differ significantly from standard fragmentation functions both in shape and magnitude. Our results support the notion of factorization and universality in the studied nuclear environments, at least in an effective way and within the precision of the available data.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2009

Next-to-Leading Order QCD Corrections to Heavy Quark Correlations in Longitudinally Polarized Hadron-Hadron Collisions

We present a comprehensive phenomenological study of heavy flavor distributions and correlations in longitudinally polarized proton-proton collisions at BNL-RHIC. All results are obtained with a flexible parton-level Monte Carlo program at next-to-leading order accuracy and include the fragmentation into heavy mesons, their subsequent semi-leptonic decays, and experimental cuts. Next-to-leading order QCD corrections are found to be significant for both cross sections and double-spin asymmetries. The sensitivity of heavy flavor measurements at BNL-RHIC to the gluon polarization of the nucleon is assessed. Electron-muon and muon-muon correlations turn out to be the most promising observables. Theoretical uncertainties are estimated by varying renormalization and factorization scales, heavy quark masses, and fragmentation parameters.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2009

Extraction of Spin-Dependent Parton Densities and Their Uncertainties

We discuss techniques and results for the extraction of the nucleon's spin-dependent parton distributions and their uncertainties from data for polarized deep-inelastic lepton-nucleon and proton-proton scattering by means of a global QCD analysis. Computational methods are described that significantly increase the speed of the required calculations to a level that allows to perform the full analysis consistently at next-to-leading order accuracy. We examine how the various data sets help to constrain different aspects of the quark, anti-quark, and gluon helicity distributions. Uncertainty estimates are performed using both the Lagrange multiplier and the Hessian approaches. We use the extracted parton distribution functions and their estimated uncertainties to predict spin asymmetries for high-transverse momentum pion and jet production in polarized proton-proton collisions at 500 GeV center-of-mass system energy at BNL-RHIC, as well as for W boson production.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2008

Global Analysis of Helicity Parton Densities and Their Uncertainties

We present a new analysis of the helicity parton distributions of the nucleon. The analysis takes into account the available data from inclusive and semi-inclusive polarized deep inelastic scattering, as well as from polarized pp scattering at RHIC. For the first time, all theoretical calculations are performed fully at next-to-leading order (NLO) of perturbative QCD, using a method that allows to incorporate the NLO corrections in a very fast and efficient way in the analysis. We find evidence for a rather small gluon polarization in the nucleon, over a limited region of momentum fraction, and for interesting flavor patterns in the polarized sea.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2008

Next-to-leading order QCD corrections to spin-dependent hadron-pair photoproduction

We compute the next-to-leading order QCD corrections to the ``direct'' part of the spin-dependent cross section for hadron-pair photoproduction. The calculation is performed using largely analytical methods. We present a brief phenomenological study of our results focussing on the $K$-factors and scale dependence of the next-to-leading order cross sections. This process is relevant for the extraction of the gluon polarization in present and future spin-dependent lepton-nucleon scattering experiments.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2007

Exploring the polarization of gluons in the nucleon

We give an overview of the current status of investigations of the polarization of gluons in the nucleon. We describe some of the physics of the spin-dependent gluon parton distribution and its phenomenology in high-energy polarized hadronic scattering. We also review the recent experimental results.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2007

Fragmentation functions for pions, kaons, protons and charged hadrons

We present new sets of pion, kaon, proton and inclusive charged hadron fragmentation functions obtained in NLO combined analyses of single-inclusive hadron production in electron-positron annihilation, proton-proton collisions, and deep-inelastic lepton-proton scattering with either particles identified in the final state. At variance with all previous fits, the present analyses take into account data where hadrons of different electrical charge are identified, which allow to discriminate quark from anti-quark fragmentation functions.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2007

Global Analysis of Fragmentation Functions for Protons and Charged Hadrons

We present new sets of fragmentation functions for protons and inclusive charged hadrons obtained in combined NLO QCD analyses of single-inclusive hadron production in electron-positron annihilation, proton-proton collisions, and deep-inelastic lepton-proton scattering. These analyses complement previous results for pion and kaon fragmentation functions with charge and flavor discrimination. The Lagrange multiplier technique is used to assess the uncertainties in the extraction of the new sets of fragmentation functions.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2007

Photoproduction of Hadron Pairs at Fixed-Target Experiments

We consider the photoproduction of two hadrons in polarized lepton-nucleon collisions in the framework of perturbative QCD at the next-to-leading order accuracy. After illustrating how to obtain the experimentally relevant observables, a phenomenological study of the photoproduction of hadron pairs at high transverse momenta is presented. We show theoretical predictions for the relevant cross sections at COMPASS and HERMES kinematics as well as theoretical uncertainties.

hep-ph↗