Deep inelastic scattering, diffraction, and all that

These lectures include an introduction to the partonic description of the proton, the photon and the `colour singlet', as seen in inclusive and semi-inclusive DIS, in $e^+e^-$ collisions, and in diffractive processes, respectively. Their formal treatment using structure, fragmentation, and fracture functions is outlined giving an insight into the perturbative QCD framework for these functions. Examples and comparisons with experimental data from LEP, HERA, and Tevatron are also covered.Comment: 46 pages, 52 postscript figures, LaTeX, aipproc.sty. To be published in the proceedings of VII Mexican Workshop on Particles and Field

NLO Scale Dependence of Semi-Inclusive Processes

We discuss the order \alpha_s^2 gluon initiated QCD corrections to one particle inclusive deep inelastic processes. We focus in the NLO evolution kernels relevant for the non homogeneous QCD scale dependence of these cross sections and factorization.Comment: Poster presentation at the XXIII Physics in Collision Conference (PIC03), Zeuthen, Germany, June 2003, 3 pages, LaTeX, 4 eps figures, PSN FRAP1

The role of heavy quarks in light hadron fragmentation

We investigate the role of heavy quarks in the production of light flavored hadrons and in the determination of the corresponding non perturbative hadronization probabilities. We define a general mass variable flavor number scheme for fragmentation functions that accounts for heavy quark mass effects, and perform a global QCD analysis to an up-to-date data set including very precise Belle and BaBar results. We show that the mass dependent picture provides a much more accurate and consistent description of data.Comment: 5 pages, 3 eps figure

The Landau Distribution for Charged Particles Traversing Thin Films

The Landau distribution as well as its first and second momenta are well suited for describing the energy loss of charged particles traversing a thin layer of matter. At present, just rational approximations and asymptotic expressions for these functions were obtained. In this paper we present a direct calculation of the integral representation of these functions obtaining perturbative and nonperturvative solutions expressed in terms of fast convergent series. We also provide a simple numerical algorithm which allows to control speed and precision of the results. The testing runs have provided, in reasonable computing times, correct results up to 13-14 significant digits on the density and distribution functions and 9-10 on the first and second momenta. If necessary, this accuracy could be improved by adding more coefficients to the algorithm.Comment: 29 pages, 4 Table

Approximate solutions for the skyrmion

We reconsider the Euler-Lagrange equation for the Skyrme model in the hedgehog ansatz and study the analytical properties of the solitonic solution. In view of the lack of a closed form solution to the problem, we work on approximate analytical solutions. We show that Pade approximants are well suited to continue analytically the asymptotic representation obtained in terms of a power series expansion near the origin, obtaining explicit approximate solutions for the Skyrme equations. We improve the approximations by applying the 2-point Pade approximant procedure whereby the exact behaviour at spatial infinity is incorporated. An even better convergence to the exact solution is obtained by introducing a modified form for the approximants. The new representations share the same analytical properties with the exact solution at both small and large values of the radial variable r.Comment: 15 pages, 5 figures. 1 Reference adde

Production and propagation of heavy hadrons in air-shower simulators

Very energetic charm and bottom hadrons may be produced in the upper atmosphere when a primary cosmic ray or the leading hadron in an extensive air shower collide with a nucleon. At $E\approx 10^8$ GeV their decay length becomes of the order of 10 km, implying that they tend to interact in the air instead of decaying. Since the inelasticity in these collisions is much smaller than the one in proton and pion collisions, there could be rare events where a heavy-hadron component transports a significant amount of energy deep into the atmosphere. We have developed a module for the detailed simulation of these processes and have included it in a new version of the air shower simulator AIRES. We study the frequency, the energy distribution and the depth of charm and bottom production, as well as the depth and the energy distribution of these quarks when they decay. As an illustration, we consider the production and decay of tau leptons (from $D_s$ decays) and the lepton flux at PeV energies from a 30 EeV proton primary. The proper inclusion of charm and bottom hadrons in AIRES opens the possibility to search for air-shower observables that are sensitive to heavy quark effects.Comment: Accepted for publication in Astroparticle Physic