arXiv subjects

Maria Vittoria Garzelli

Publications and source records attributed to Maria Vittoria Garzelli.

32 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2022

Phenomenology of $t\bar{t}j + X$ production at the LHC

We present phenomenological results for $t\bar{t}j + X$ production at the Large Hadron Collider, of interest for designing forthcoming experimental analyses of this process. We focus on those cases where the $t\bar{t}j + X$ process is considered as a signal. We discuss present theoretical uncertainties and the dependence on relevant input parameters entering the computation. For the ${\cal R}$ distribution, which depends on the invariant mass of the $t\bar{t}j$-system, we present reference predictions in the on-shell, $\overline{\mbox{MS}}$ and MSR top-quark mass renormalization schemes, applying the latter scheme to this process for the first time. Our conclusions are particularly interesting for those analyses aiming at extracting the top-quark mass from cross-section measurements.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2022

The Forward Physics Facility: Sites, Experiments, and Physics Potential

The Forward Physics Facility (FPF) is a proposal to create a cavern with the space and infrastructure to support a suite of far-forward experiments at the Large Hadron Collider during the High Luminosity era. Located along the beam collision axis and shielded from the interaction point by at least 100 m of concrete and rock, the FPF will house experiments that will detect particles outside the acceptance of the existing large LHC experiments and will observe rare and exotic processes in an extremely low-background environment. In this work, we summarize the current status of plans for the FPF, including recent progress in civil engineering in identifying promising sites for the FPF and the experiments currently envisioned to realize the FPF's physics potential. We then review the many Standard Model and new physics topics that will be advanced by the FPF, including searches for long-lived particles, probes of dark matter and dark sectors, high-statistics studies of TeV neutrinos of all three flavors, aspects of perturbative and non-perturbative QCD, and high-energy astroparticle physics.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2022

Prompt electron and tau neutrinos and antineutrinos in the forward region at the LHC

Neutrino fluxes at high rapidity and at high energy are sensitive to QCD dynamics of heavy-flavor production in kinematic regions where measurements have not yet been made. The FASER$ν$ and SND@LHC experiments scheduled for Run 3 at the LHC and the proposed Forward Physics Facility with a suite of experiments during the High-Luminosity LHC phase will probe neutrinos at high pseudorapidity. This short paper reports on recent evaluations of the prompt $ν_τ+\barν_τ$ and $ν_e+\barν_e$ double-differential cross sections in $pp$ collisions at the Large Hadron Collider from the production and decays of $D_s^\pm$ and $D^\pm$, respectively. For $\sqrt{s}=14$ TeV, the double-differential neutrino energy and pseudorapidity distributions are evaluated at NLO QCD. Data tables with these predictions are presented. Future work needed to refine predictions of neutrino and antineutrino fluxes in the forward region at the LHC is discussed.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2022

Top-quark mass extraction from $t\bar{t}j +X$ events at the LHC: theory predictions

Past work has proven the possibility of extracting the top-quark mass, one of the fundamental parameters of the Standard Model, from the comparison of theory predictions and experimental measurements of differential cross-sections for $t\bar{t} j~+~X$ hadroproduction. Various experimental analyses in this respect have already been performed, and new ones are in preparation on the basis of the latest data from $pp$ collisions collected at the Large Hadron Collider. We have produced and made public a comprehensive set of theoretical predictions for the relevant differential distributions, ready to be used for presently ongoing and forthcoming experimental analyses. We investigate the role of different theoretical inputs, in particular the factorization and renormalization scales, PDFs and top-quark mass renormalization schemes, and we quantify the uncertainties related to different choices for these inputs, providing recommendations.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2022

The Forward Physics Facility at the High-Luminosity LHC

High energy collisions at the High-Luminosity Large Hadron Collider (LHC) produce a large number of particles along the beam collision axis, outside of the acceptance of existing LHC experiments. The proposed Forward Physics Facility (FPF), to be located several hundred meters from the ATLAS interaction point and shielded by concrete and rock, will host a suite of experiments to probe Standard Model (SM) processes and search for physics beyond the Standard Model (BSM). In this report, we review the status of the civil engineering plans and the experiments to explore the diverse physics signals that can be uniquely probed in the forward region. FPF experiments will be sensitive to a broad range of BSM physics through searches for new particle scattering or decay signatures and deviations from SM expectations in high statistics analyses with TeV neutrinos in this low-background environment. High statistics neutrino detection will also provide valuable data for fundamental topics in perturbative and non-perturbative QCD and in weak interactions. Experiments at the FPF will enable synergies between forward particle production at the LHC and astroparticle physics to be exploited. We report here on these physics topics, on infrastructure, detector, and simulation studies, and on future directions to realize the FPF's physics potential.

hep-ex↗

arXiv2022

Uncertainties on the theoretical input for $t\bar{t}j$ experimental analyses at the LHC

The precise measurement of the top-quark mass constitutes one of the main goals of the LHC top-quark physics program. One possibility to extract this parameter uses the $ρ_{\mathrm{s}}$ distribution, which depends on the invariant mass of the $t\bar{t}j$ system. To fully take advantage of the experimental accuracy achievable in measuring top quark production cross sections at the LHC, the theory uncertainties need to be well under control. We present a study of the effect of varying the input parameters of the theoretical calculation on the predicted $ρ_{\mathrm{s}}$ distribution. Thereby we studied the influence of the $R$ parameter in the jet reconstruction procedure, as well as the effect of various renormalization and factorization scale definitions and different PDF sets. A behaviour similar to the one presented here for the $ρ_{\mathrm{s}}$-distribution was also found for other differential distributions.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2021

Theory input for $t\bar{t}j$ experimental analyses at the LHC

The precise measurement of the top quark mass, which is a fundamental SM parameter, constitutes one of the main goals of the LHC top physics program. One approach to measure this quantity uses the $ρ_\mathrm{s}$ distribution, an observable depending on the invariant mass of the $t\bar{t}j$ system. To fully exploit the experimental accuracy achievable in measuring top quark production cross sections at the LHC, the theory uncertainties associated to these measurements need to be well under control. To this end we present a study of the effect of varying the theoretical input parameters in the calculation of differential cross sections of the $t\bar{t}j$ process. Thereby we studied the influence of the jet reconstruction procedure, as well as the effect of various renormalization and factorization scale definitions and different PDF sets. The variation of the $R$ parameter in the jet reconstruction algorithm was found to have negligible influence on the scale variation uncertainty. A strong reduction of scale uncertainties and a better behaviour of the NLO/LO ratios using selected dynamical scales instead of a static one in the high energy tails of differential distributions was observed. This is particularly interesting in the context of the top quark mass measurements through the $ρ_\mathrm{s}$ distribution, in which the perturbative stability can be improved by applying the proposed dynamical scale definition.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2021

Prospects for quarkonium studies at the high-luminosity LHC

Prospects for quarkonium-production studies accessible during the upcoming high-luminosity phases of the CERN Large Hadron Collider operation after 2021 are reviewed. Current experimental and theoretical open issues in the field are assessed together with the potential for future studies in quarkonium-related physics. This will be possible through the exploitation of the huge data samples to be collected in proton-proton, proton-nucleus and nucleus-nucleus collisions, both in the collider and fixed-target modes. Such investigations include, among others, those of: (i) J/psi and Upsilon produced in association with other hard particles; (ii) chi(c,b) and eta(c,b) down to small transverse momenta; (iii) the constraints brought in by quarkonia on gluon PDFs, nuclear PDFs, TMDs, GPDs and GTMDs, as well as on the low-x parton dynamics; (iv) the gluon Sivers effect in polarised-nucleon collisions; (v) the properties of the quark-gluon plasma produced in ultra-relativistic heavy-ion collisions and of collective partonic effects in general; and (vi) double and triple parton scatterings.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2021

Neutrinos from charm: forward production at the LHC and in the atmosphere

Theoretical predictions of the prompt atmospheric neutrino flux have large uncertainties associated with charm hadron production, by far the dominant source of prompt neutrinos in the atmosphere. The flux of cosmic rays, with its steeply falling energy spectrum, weights the forward production of charm in the evaluation of the atmospheric neutrino flux at high energies. The current LHCb experiment at CERN constrains charm production in kinematic regions relevant to the prompt atmospheric neutrino flux. The proposed Forward Physics Facility has additional capabilities to detect neutrino fluxes from forward charm production at the LHC. We discuss the implications of the current and planned experiments on the development of theoretical predictions of the high energy atmospheric neutrino flux.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2020

Far-forward neutrinos at the Large Hadron Collider

We present a new calculation of the energy distribution of high-energy neutrinos from the decay of charm and bottom hadrons produced at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). In the kinematical region of very forward rapidities, heavy-flavor production and decay is a source of tau neutrinos that leads to thousands of { charged-current} tau neutrino events in a 1 m long, 1 m radius lead neutrino detector at a distance of 480 m from the interaction region. In our computation, next-to-leading order QCD radiative corrections are accounted for in the production cross-sections. Non-perturbative intrinsic-$k_T$ effects are approximated by a simple phenomenological model introducing a Gaussian $k_T$-smearing of the parton distribution functions, which might also mimic perturbative effects due to multiple initial-state soft-gluon emissions. The transition from partonic to hadronic states is described by phenomenological fragmentation functions. To study the effect of various input parameters, theoretical predictions for $D_s^\pm$ production are compared with LHCb data on double-differential cross-sections in transverse momentum and rapidity. The uncertainties related to the choice of the input parameter values, ultimately affecting the predictions of the tau neutrino event distributions, are discussed. We consider a 3+1 neutrino mixing scenario to illustrate the potential for a neutrino experiment to constrain the 3+1 parameter space using tau neutrinos and antineutrinos. We find large theoretical uncertainties in the predictions of the neutrino fluxes in the far-forward region. Untangling the effects of tau neutrino oscillations into sterile neutrinos and distinguishing a 3+1 scenario from the standard scenario with three active neutrino flavours, will be challenging due to the large theoretical uncertainties from QCD.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2019

Towards enhanced databases for High Energy Physics

The accumulation of a large amount of new experimental data at an impressive rate at present and future collider experiments has led to important questions concerning data storage and organization, their public access and usability, as well as their efficient usage in order to discriminate between different theories. For the last fourty years, the HEPData database has been the reference database for the worldwide community of elementary particle physicists, from DIS to fixed-target and collider experts. Using as a basis a dump of HEPData*, we discuss possible paths to enhance the capabilities of databases for High Energy Physics. Our starting point is the reorganization of the data in a different scheme, which allows for the application of OLAP techniques to automatically extract information at a multidimensional level, answering to complex queries. The feedback of the DIS community is important for understanding specific needs, aiming at a more effective storage, extraction and presentation of the data and information of their interest.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2018

PROSA PDFs and astrophysical applications

The PROSA parton distribution function fit was the first one appeared in the literature incorporating data on open charm and open bottom production at LHCb, in order to reduce the uncertainties on gluons and sea quarks at low $x$'s ($x$ $<$ $10^{-4}$). We discuss aspects of the PROSA PDFs of particular relevance for their usage in the field of Neutrino Astronomy, and their application in the computation of prompt neutrino fluxes.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2013

Micro Black Hole Production and Evaporation

It has been conjectured that Micro Black Holes (MBH) may be formed in the presence of large extra dimensions. These MBHs have very small mass and they decay almost instantaneously. Taking into consideration quantum effects, they should Hawking radiate mainly to Standard Model particles, this radiation then gets modified by the non trivial geometry around the MBHs; the so called greybody factors which filter the Hawking radiation. To test the validity of MBH models, one needs to investigate it experimentally. A primary tool in this investigation is simulation of the MBH formation and evaporation, including all theoretical work that has been performed up to now. BlackMax and CHARYBDIS2 are the most modern and realistic simulators currently available. However they still suffer from a lack of important parameters. In this article we will discuss the primary work that we have done to study the possible changes that can be implemented in the simulations.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2013

Automation of one-loop QCD corrections

We present the complete automation of the computation of one-loop QCD corrections, including UV renormalization, to an arbitrary scattering process in the Standard Model. This is achieved by embedding the OPP integrand reduction technique, as implemented in CutTools, into the MadGraph framework. By interfacing the tool so constructed, which we dub MadLoop, with MadFKS, the fully automatic computation of any infrared-safe observable at the next-to-leading order in QCD is attained. We demonstrate the flexibility and the reach of our method by calculating the production rates for a variety of processes at the 7 TeV LHC.

hep-ph↗