Convolved Substructure: Analytically Decorrelating Jet Substructure Observables

A number of recent applications of jet substructure, in particular searches for light new particles, require substructure observables that are decorrelated with the jet mass. In this paper we introduce the Convolved SubStructure (CSS) approach, which uses a theoretical understanding of the observable to decorrelate the complete shape of its distribution. This decorrelation is performed by convolution with a shape function whose parameters and mass dependence are derived analytically. We consider in detail the case of the $D_2$ observable and perform an illustrative case study using a search for a light hadronically decaying $Z'$. We find that the CSS approach completely decorrelates the $D_2$ observable over a wide range of masses. Our approach highlights the importance of improving the theoretical understanding of jet substructure observables to exploit increasingly subtle features for performance.Comment: 20 pages, 11 figures. v2. Corrected typo in legend in Figure 5. Updated Figure 11, minor modification to conclusions on discrimination power. v3. Updated to published version. Minor typos correcte

Probing Transverse-Momentum Dependent Evolution With Groomed Jets

We propose an observable which involves measuring the properties (transverse momentum $p_{h\perp}$ and energy fraction $z_h$) of an identified hadron inside a groomed jet. The jet is identified with an anti-kT/CA algorithm and is groomed by implementing the modified mass drop procedure with an energy cut-off parameter $z_{cut}$. The transverse momentum of the hadron inside the jet is measured with respect to the groomed jet axis. We obtain a factorization theorem in the framework of Soft Collinear Effective Theory (SCET), to define a Transverse Momentum Dependent Fragmenting Jet Function (TMDFJF). The TMDFJF is factorized into collinear and collinear soft modes by matching onto SCET$_+$. We resum large logarithms in $E_J/p_{h\perp}$, where $E_J$ is the ungroomed jet energy, to NLL accuracy and apply this formalism for computing the shape of the $p_{h\perp}$ distribution of a pion produced in an $e^+ +e^-$ collision. We observe that the introduction of grooming makes this observable insensitive to non-global logarithms and particularly sensitive to non-perturbative physics of the transverse momentum dependent evolution at low values of $p_{h\perp}$, which can be probed in the variation of the cut-off parameter $z_{cut}$ of the groomer. We discuss how this observable can be used to distinguish between non-perturbative models that describe universal TMD evolution and provide a window into the three dimensional structure of hadrons.Comment: 23 pages, 4 figure

The Higgs Transverse Momentum Distribution at NNLL and its Theoretical Errors

In this letter, we present the NNLL-NNLO transverse momentum Higgs distribution arising from gluon fusion. In the regime $p_\perp\ll m_H$ we include the resummation of the large logs at next to next-to leading order and then match on to the $\alpha_s^2$ fixed order result near $p_\perp \sim m_h$. By utilizing the rapidity renormalization group (RRG) we are able to smoothly match between the resummed, small $p_\perp$ regime and the fixed order regime. We give a detailed discussion of the scale dependence of the result including an analysis of the rapidity scale dependence. Our central value differs from previous results, in the transition region as well as the tail, by an amount which is outside the error band. This difference is due to the fact that the RRG profile allows us to smoothly turn off the resummation.Comment: 23 pages, 10 figure

Toward Multi-Differential Cross Sections: Measuring Two Angularities on a Single Jet

The analytic study of differential cross sections in QCD has typically focused on individual observables, such as mass or thrust, to great success. Here, we present a first study of double differential jet cross sections considering two recoil-free angularities measured on a single jet. By analyzing the phase space defined by the two angularities and using methods from soft-collinear effective theory, we prove that the double differential cross section factorizes at the boundaries of the phase space. We also show that the cross section in the bulk of the phase space cannot be factorized using only soft and collinear modes, excluding the possibility of a global factorization theorem in soft-collinear effective theory. Nevertheless, we are able to define a simple interpolation procedure that smoothly connects the factorization theorem at one boundary to the other. We present an explicit example of this at next-to-leading logarithmic accuracy and show that the interpolation is unique up to $\alpha_s^4$ order in the exponent of the cross section, under reasonable assumptions. This is evidence that the interpolation is sufficiently robust to account for all logarithms in the bulk of phase space to the accuracy of the boundary factorization theorem. We compare our analytic calculation of the double differential cross section to Monte Carlo simulation and find qualitative agreement. Because our arguments rely on general structures of the phase space, we expect that much of our analysis would be relevant for the study of phenomenologically well-motivated observables, such as $N$-subjettiness, energy correlation functions, and planar flow.Comment: 43 pages plus appendices, 8 figures. v2 as published in JHEP. minor typos correcte