arXiv subjects
Publications and source records attributed to S. Kretzer.
The main focus of this working group was to investigate the different issues associated with the development of quantitative tools to estimate parton distribution functions uncertainties. In the conclusion, we introduce a "Manifesto" that describes an optimal method for reporting data.
We present a status report of a variety of projects related to heavy quark production and parton distributions for the Tevatron Run II.
Fitting $Z^0$-pole data from ALEPH and SLD, and TPC data at a lower c.m.s.\ energy, we fix the boundary condition for NLO parton$\to$hadron (hadron$=π^\pm, K^\pm, \sum_h h^\pm$) fragmentation functions (FFs) at the low resolution scale of the radiative parton model of Glück, Reya and Vogt (GRV). Perturbative LO$\leftrightarrow$NLO stability is investigated. The emphasis of the fit is on information on the fragmentation process for individual light ($u,d,s$) and heavy ($c,b$) quark flavours where we comment on the factorization scheme for heavy quarks in $e^+e^-$ annihilations as compared to deep inelastic production. Inasmuch as the light quark input parameters are not yet completely pinned down by measurements we assume power laws to implement a physical hierarchy among the FFs respecting valence enhancement and strangeness suppression both of which are manifest from recent leading particle measurements. Through the second Mellin moments of the input functions we discuss the energy-momentum sum rule for massless FFs. We discuss our results in comparison to previous fits and recent 3-jet measurements and formulate present uncertainties in our knowledge of the individual FFs.
In this note we formulate and investigate theoretical uncertainties for high Q^2 deep inelastic heavy quark (charm, etc.) production rates which arise within collinear resummation techniques from variations of the a priori unknown charm input scale Q_0 of O(alpha_s) variable flavour number schemes. We show that Q_0 variations constitute a source of considerable theoretical uncertainty of present O(alpha_s) calculations within such schemes and we suggest to consider a scale optimization from higher order corrections. We also outline how the stability of the fixed order and collinearly resummed perturbation series for heavy quark production can be comparatively investigated by variation of Q_0.
Charged current charm and D meson production is studied in detail as a means of determining the unpolarized and polarized strange sea densities at HERA. All analyses are performed in next-to-leading order QCD, including a calculation of the so far unknown spin-dependent MSbar coefficient functions up to O(alpha_s). It is shown that a decent measurement is possible in the unpolarized case, provided a sufficient luminosity can be reached in the future, while for longitudinally polarized beams it appears to be extremely challenging due to limitations imposed on the expected statistical accuracy by the charm detection efficiency.
Neutrino-nucleon total cross sections for neutrino energies up to ultrahigh energies (UHE), E_ν=10^12 GeV, are evaluated within the framework of the dynamical (radiative) parton model. The expected uncertainties of these predictions do not exceed the level of about 20 % at the highest energies where contributions of parton distributions in the yet unmeasured region around x\simeq 10^-8 to 10^-9 are non-negligible. This is far more accurate than estimated uncertainties of about 2^+-1 due to ad hoc extrapolations of parton distributions to x<10^-5 required for calculating UHE cosmic neutrino event rates.
In charged current deep inelastic scattering charm is dominantly produced in scattering events on strange quarks, thereby allowing for an experimental determination of the nucleon's strange sea density. A measurement of the energy spectrum of final state charm fragments (D-mesons) determines the charm fragmentation function at spacelike scales considerably below typical e^+e^- c.m.s. energies. NLO corrections to the naive s -> c parton model production picture are important and well understood.
We perform an analysis of semi-inclusive production of charm (D-mesons) in neutral current (NC) and charged current (CC) deep inelastic scattering (DIS) at full O(alpha_s^1). Our calculation is based on the heavy quark scheme developed by Aivazis, Collins, Olness and Tung (ACOT) where we include an O(alpha_s^1) calculation of quark scattering contributions for general masses and couplings. We review the relevant massive formulae and subtraction terms and discuss their massless limits. We show how the charm fragmentation function can be measured in CC DIS and we investigate whether the charm production dynamics may be tested in NC DIS. We also discuss finite initial state quark mass effects in CC and NC DIS.
We present O(alpha_s^1) corrections to deep inelastic scattering amplitudes on massive quarks obtained within the scheme of Aivazis, Collins, Olness and Tung (ACOT). After identifying the correct subtraction term the convergence of these contributions towards the analogous coefficient functions for massless quarks, obtained within the modified minimal subtraction scheme (MSbar), is demonstrated. Furthermore, the quantitative relevance of the contributions to neutral current (NC) and charged current (CC) structure functions is investigated for several choices of the factorization scale.
We present formulae for the momentum (z) distributions of D-mesons produced in neutrino deep-inelastic scattering off strange partons. The expressions are derived within the variable flavor scheme of Aivazis et al. (ACOT-scheme), which is extended from its fully inclusive formulation to one-hadron inclusive leptoproduction. The dependence of the results on the assumed strange quark mass m_s is investigated and the m_ \to 0 limit is compared to the corresponding MSbar results. The importance of O(alpha_s) quark-initiated corrections is demonstrated for the m_s=0 case.
Neutrino induced deep inelastic charm production off strange sea partons in the nucleon is studied in the framework of the MSbar fixed flavor factorization scheme. The momentum (z) distributions of the produced D mesons as calculated in the next-to-leading order QCD analysis are presented and compared to their leading order counterparts. Perturbative stability within this formalism is demonstrated and the compatibility of recent next-to-leading order (NLO) strange quark distributions with available dimuon data is investigated. Our NLO (MSbar) results provide, for the first time, the tools required for a consistent and complete NLO (MSbar) analysis of charged current dimuon data in order to extract the strange sea density in NLO. It is furthermore shown that the absolute predictions of radiatively (dynamically) generated strange sea densities are in agreement with all present measurements.
Charm production as related to the determination of the strange sea density in deep inelastic charged current processes is studied predominantly in the framework of the $\overline{\rm{MS}}$ fixed flavor factorization scheme. Perturbative stability within this formalism is demonstrated. The compatibility of recent next-to-leading order strange quark distributions with the available dimuon and $F^{νN}_2$ data is investigated. It is shown that final conclusions concerning these distributions afford further analyses of presently available and/or forthcoming neutrino data.