arXiv subjects

Simone Alioli

Publications and source records attributed to Simone Alioli.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2020

MCNNTUNES: tuning Shower Monte Carlo generators with machine learning

The parameters tuning of event generators is a research topic characterized by complex choices: the generator response to parameter variations is difficult to obtain on a theoretical basis, and numerical methods are hardly tractable due to the long computational times required by generators. Event generator tuning has been tackled by parametrisation-based techniques, with the most successful one being a polynomial parametrisation. In this work, an implementation of tuning procedures based on artificial neural networks is proposed. The implementation was tested with closure testing and experimental measurements from the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider.

physics.comp-ph↗

arXiv2020

Novel angular dependence in Drell-Yan lepton production via dimension-8 operators

We study the effects of dimension-8 operators on Drell-Yan production of lepton pairs at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). We identify a class of operators that leads to novel angular dependence not accounted for in current analyses. The observation of such effects would be a smoking-gun signature of new physics appearing at the dimension-8 level. We propose an extension of the currently used angular basis and show that these effects should be observable in future LHC analyses for realistic values of the associated dimension-8 Wilson coefficients.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2019

Higgsstrahlung at NNLL$'+$NNLO Matched to Parton Showers in GENEVA

We present results for the Higgsstrahlung process within the GENEVA Monte Carlo framework. We combine the fully differential NNLO calculation with the higher-order resummation in the 0-jettiness resolution variable (beam-thrust). The resulting parton-level events are further showered and hadronised by Pythia8. The beam-thrust resummation is carried out to NNLL$'$ accuracy, which consistently incorporates all singular virtual and real NNLO corrections. It thus provides a natural perturbative connection between the NNLO calculation and the parton shower regime, including a systematic assessment of perturbative uncertainties. In this way, observables which are inclusive over the additional radiation are correct to NNLO, while the description of 0-jet-like resummation variables is improved beyond the parton shower approximation. We provide predictions for the 13 TeV LHC.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2019

Proposal for the validation of Monte Carlo implementations of the standard model effective field theory

We propose a procedure to cross-validate Monte Carlo implementations of the standard model effective field theory. It is based on the numerical comparison of squared amplitudes computed at specific phase-space and parameter points in pairs of implementations. Interactions are fully linearised in the effective field theory expansion. The squares of linear effective field theory amplitudes and their interference with standard-model contributions are compared separately. Such pairwise comparisons are primarily performed at tree level and a possible extension to the one-loop level is also briefly considered. We list the current standard model effective field theory implementations and the comparisons performed to date.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2019

Monte Carlo event generators for high energy particle physics event simulation

Monte Carlo event generators (MCEGs) are the indispensable workhorses of particle physics, bridging the gap between theoretical ideas and first-principles calculations on the one hand, and the complex detector signatures and data of the experimental community on the other hand. All collider physics experiments are dependent on simulated events by MCEG codes such as Herwig, Pythia, Sherpa, POWHEG, and MG5_aMC@NLO to design and tune their detectors and analysis strategies. The development of MCEGs is overwhelmingly driven by a vibrant community of academics at European Universities, who also train the next generations of particle phenomenologists. The new challenges posed by possible future collider-based experiments and the fact that the first analyses at Run II of the LHC are now frequently limited by theory uncertainties urge the community to invest into further theoretical and technical improvements of these essential tools. In this short contribution to the European Strategy Update, we briefly review the state of the art, and the further developments that will be needed to meet the challenges of the next generation.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2018

NLO QCD corrections to SM-EFT dilepton and electroweak Higgs boson production, matched to parton shower in POWHEG

We discuss the Standard Model Effective Field Theory (SM-EFT) contributions to neutral- and charge-current Drell-Yan production, associated production of the Higgs and a vector boson, and Higgs boson production via vector boson fusion. We consider all the dimension-six SM-EFT operators that contribute to these processes at leading order, include next-to-leading order QCD corrections, and interface them with parton showering and hadronization in Pythia8 according to the POWHEG method. We discuss existing constraints on the coefficients of dimension-six operators and identify differential and angular distributions that can differentiate between different effective operators, pointing to specific features of Beyond-the-Standard-Model physics.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2017

Catching a New Force by the Tail

The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is sensitive to new heavy gauge bosons that produce narrow peaks in the dilepton invariant mass spectrum up to about $m_{Z'}\sim 5$ TeV. $Z'$s that are too heavy to produce directly can reveal their presence through interference with Standard Model dilepton production. We show that the LHC can significantly extend the mass reach for such $Z'$s by performing precision measurements of the shape of the dilepton invariant mass spectrum. The high luminosity LHC can exclude, with 95$\%$ confidence, new gauge bosons as heavy as $m_{Z'} \sim 10-20$ TeV that couple with gauge coupling strength of $g_{Z'} \sim 1-2$.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2017

Precision Probes of QCD at High Energies

New physics, that is too heavy to be produced directly, can leave measurable imprints on the tails of kinematic distributions at the LHC. We use energetic QCD processes to perform novel measurements of the Standard Model (SM) Effective Field Theory. We show that the dijet invariant mass spectrum, and the inclusive jet transverse momentum spectrum, are sensitive to a dimension 6 operator that modifies the gluon propagator at high energies. The dominant effect is constructive or destructive interference with SM jet production. We compare differential next-to-leading order predictions from POWHEG to public 7 TeV jet data, including scale, PDF, and experimental uncertainties and their respective correlations. We constrain a New Physics (NP) scale of 3.5 TeV with current data. We project the reach of future 13 and 100 TeV measurements, which we estimate to be sensitive to NP scales of 8 and 60 TeV, respectively. As an application, we apply our bounds to constrain heavy vector octet colorons that couple to the QCD current. We project that effective operators will surpass bump hunts, in terms of coloron mass reach, even for sequential couplings.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2017

Underlying event sensitive observables in Drell-Yan production using GENEVA

We present an extension of the GENEVA Monte Carlo framework to include multiple parton interactions (MPI) provided by PYTHIA8. This allows us to obtain predictions for underlying-event sensitive measurements in Drell-Yan production, in conjunction with GENEVA's fully-differential NNLO calculation, NNLL' resummation for the 0-jet resolution variable (beam thrust), and NLL resummation for the 1-jet resolution variable. We describe the interface with the parton shower algorithm and MPI model of PYTHIA8, which preserves both the precision of partonic N-jet cross sections in GENEVA as well as the shower accuracy and good description of soft hadronic physics of PYTHIA8. We present results for several underlying-event sensitive observables and compare to data from ATLAS and CMS as well as to standalone PYTHIA8 predictions. This includes a comparison with the recent ATLAS measurement of the beam thrust spectrum, which provides a potential avenue to fully disentangle the physical effects from the primary hard interaction, primary soft radiation, multiple parton interactions, and nonperturbative hadronization.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2016

ZZ production in gluon fusion at NLO matched to parton-shower

We present a calculation of the next-to-leading order (NLO) QCD corrections to the hadroproduction process $gg\to ZZ \to e^+e^- μ^+ μ^-$, matched to the parton shower in the POWHEG framework. We take advantage of the POWHEG BOX tool for the implementation and rely on PYTHIA 8 for the showering and hadronization stages. We fully include $γ^*/Z$ interference effects, while also covering the single-resonant region. For this phenomenological study we focus on four lepton production as a signal process, neglecting all quark mass effects as well as the Higgs-mediated contributions, which are known to be subdominant in this case. We provide predictions from our simulations for the 13 TeV LHC Run II setup, including realistic experimental cuts.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2015

Drell-Yan Production at NNLL'+NNLO Matched to Parton Showers

We present results for Drell-Yan production from the GENEVA Monte-Carlo framework. We combine the fully-differential NNLO calculation with higher-order resummation in the 0-jettiness resolution variable. The resulting parton-level events are further combined with parton showering and hadronization provided by PYTHIA8. The 0-jettiness resummation is carried out to NNLL', which consistently incorporates all singular virtual and real NNLO corrections. It thus provides a natural perturbative connection between the NNLO calculation and the parton shower regime, including a systematic assessment of perturbative uncertainties. In this way, inclusive observables are correct to NNLO, up to small power corrections in the resolution cutoff. Furthermore, the perturbative accuracy of 0-jet-like resummation variables is significantly improved beyond the parton shower approximation. We provide comparisons with LHC measurements of Drell-Yan production at 7 TeV from ATLAS, CMS, and LHCb. As already observed in $e^+e^-$ collisions, for resummation-sensitive observables, the agreement with data is noticeably improved by using a lower value of $α_s(M_Z) = 0.1135$.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2014

Jet Veto Clustering Logarithms Beyond Leading Order

Many experimental analyses separate events into exclusive jet bins, using a jet algorithm to cluster the final state and then veto on jets. Jet clustering induces logarithmic dependence on the jet radius R in the cross section for exclusive jet bins, a dependence that is poorly controlled due to the non-global nature of the clustering. At jet radii of experimental interest, the leading order (LO) clustering effects are numerically significant, but the higher order effects are currently unknown. We rectify this situation by calculating the most important part of the next-to-leading order (NLO) clustering logarithms of R for any 0-jet process, which enter as $O(α_s^3)$ corrections to the cross section. The calculation blends subtraction methods for NLO calculations with factorization properties of QCD and soft-collinear effective theory (SCET). We compare the size of the known LO and new NLO clustering logarithms and find that the impact of the NLO terms on the 0-jet cross section in Higgs production is small. This brings clustering effects under better control and may be used to improve uncertainty estimates on cross sections with a jet veto.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2013

Matching Fully Differential NNLO Calculations and Parton Showers

We present a general method to match fully differential next-to-next-to-leading (NNLO) calculations to parton shower programs. We discuss in detail the perturbative accuracy criteria a complete NNLO+PS matching has to satisfy. Our method is based on consistently improving a given NNLO calculation with the leading-logarithmic (LL) resummation in a chosen jet resolution variable. The resulting NNLO$+$LL calculation is cast in the form of an event generator for physical events that can be directly interfaced with a parton shower routine, and we give an explicit construction of the input "Monte Carlo cross sections" satisfying all required criteria. We also show how other proposed approaches naturally arise as special cases in our method.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2013

Combining Higher-Order Resummation with Multiple NLO Calculations and Parton Showers in GENEVA

We extend the lowest-order matching of tree-level matrix elements with parton showers to give a complete description at the next higher perturbative accuracy in alpha_s at both small and large jet resolutions, which has not been achieved so far. This requires the combination of the higher-order resummation of large Sudakov logarithms at small values of the jet resolution variable with the full next-to-leading order (NLO) matrix-element corrections at large values. As a by-product this combination naturally leads to a smooth connection of the NLO calculations for different jet multiplicities. In this paper, we focus on the general construction of our method and discuss its application to e+e and pp collisions. We present first results of the implementation in the GENEVA Monte Carlo framework, where we employ N-jettiness as the jet resolution variable, combining its next-to-next-to-leading logarithmic resummation with fully exclusive NLO matrix elements, and PYTHIA8 as the backend for further parton showering and hadronization. For hadronic collisions, we take Drell-Yan production as an example to apply our construction. For e+e- -> jets, taking alpha_s(mZ) = 0.1135 from fits to LEP thrust data, together with the PYTHIA8 hadronization model, we obtain good agreement with LEP data for a variety of 2-jet observables.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2013

Combining Higher-Order Resummation with Multiple NLO Calculations and Parton Showers in the GENEVA Monte Carlo Framework

We discuss the GENEVA Monte Carlo framework, which combines higher-order resummation (NNLL) of large Sudakov logarithms with multiple next-to-leading-order (NLO) matrix-element corrections and parton showering (using PYTHIA8) to give a complete description at the next higher perturbative accuracy in alpha_s at both small and large jet resolution scales. Results for e+e- -> jets compared to LEP data and for Drell-Yan production are presented.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2013

A new observable to measure the top-quark mass at hadron colliders

A new method to measure the top-quark mass in high energetic hadron collisions is presented. We use theoretical predictions calculated at next-to-leading order accuracy in quantum chromodynamics to study the (normalized) differential distribution of the \ttbaronejet cross section with respect to its invariant mass $\sqrt{\sttj}$. The sensitivity of the method to the top-quark mass together with the impact of various theoretical and experimental uncertainties has been investigated and quantified. The new method allows for a complementary measurement of the top-quark mass parameter and has a high potential to become competitive in precision with respect to established approaches. Furthermore we emphasize that in the proposed method the mass parameter is uniquely defined through one-loop renormalization.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2012

Probing higher-order corrections in dijet production at the LHC

Both the ATLAS and CMS Collaborations have sought for effects beyond pure next-to-leading order in dijet observables, with the goal to distinguish between the perturbative descriptions provided by a next-to-leading order plus collinear-resummation calculation and by the resummation of wide-angle, hard emissions. In this paper we identify regions of phase space in dijet production where some observables receive large corrections beyond next-to-leading order and study their theoretical description with two tools that perform these two different resummations: the POWHEG BOX and HEJ. Furthermore, we suggest analyses where the predictions from POWHEG and HEJ can be clearly distinguished experimentally.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2012

Top-quark pair-production with one jet and parton showering at hadron colliders

We present heavy-flavor production in association with one jet in hadronic collisions matched to parton shower Monte Carlo predictions at next-to-leading order QCD with account of top-quark decays and spin correlations. We use the POWHEGBOX for the interface to the parton shower programs PYTHIA or HERWIG. Phenomenological studies for the LHC and the Tevatron are presented with particular emphasis on the inclusion of spin-correlation effects in top decay and the impact of the parton shower on the top-quark charge asymmetries. As a novel application of the present calculation the measurement of the top-quark mass is discussed.

hep-ph↗