A Forward Branching Phase-Space Generator

We develop a forward branching phase-space generator for use in next-to-leading order parton level event generators. By performing 2 -> 3 branchings from a fixed jet phase-space point, all bremsstrahlung events contributing to the given jet configuration are generated. The resulting phase-space integration is three-dimensional irrespective of the considered jet multiplicity. In this first study, we use the forward branching phase-space generator to calculate in the leading-color approximation next-to-leading order corrections to fully differential gluonic jet configurations.Comment: 35 pages, 5 figures, 1 tabl

Non-perturbative proton stability

Proton decay is a generic prediction of GUT models and is therefore an important channel to detect the existence of unification or to set limits on GUT models. Current bounds on the proton lifetime are around 10^33 years, which sets stringent limits on the GUT scale. These limits are obtained under `reasonable' assumptions about the size of the hadronic matrix elements. In this paper we present a non-perturbative calculation of the hadronic matrix elements within the chiral bag model of the proton. We argue that there is an exponential suppression of the matrix elements, due to non-perturbative QCD, that stifles proton decay by orders of magnitude -- potentially O(10^-10). This suppression is present for small quark masses and is due to the chiral symmetry breaking of QCD. Such a suppression has clear implications for GUT models and could resuscitate several scenarios

On next-to-eikonal corrections to threshold resummation for the Drell-Yan and DIS cross sections

We study corrections suppressed by one power of the soft gluon energy to the resummation of threshold logarithms for the Drell-Yan cross section and for Deep Inelastic structure functions. While no general factorization theorem is known for these next-to-eikonal (NE) corrections, it is conjectured that at least a subset will exponentiate, along with the logarithms arising at leading power. Here we develop some general tools to study NE logarithms, and we construct an ansatz for threshold resummation that includes various sources of NE corrections, implementing in this context the improved collinear evolution recently proposed by Dokshitzer, Marchesini and Salam (DMS). We compare our ansatz to existing exact results at two and three loops, finding evidence for the exponentiation of leading NE logarithms and confirming the predictivity of DMS evolution.Comment: 17 page

Thread-Scalable Evaluation of Multi-Jet Observables

A leading-order, leading-color parton-level event generator is developed for use on a multi-threaded GPU. Speed-up factors between 150 and 300 are obtained compared to an unoptimized CPU-based implementation of the event generator. In this first paper we study the feasibility of a GPU-based event generator with an emphasis on the constraints imposed by the hardware. Some studies of Monte Carlo convergence and accuracy are presented for PP -> 2,...,10 jet observables using of the order of 1e11 events.Comment: 16 pages, 5 figures, 3 table

Next-to-eikonal corrections to soft gluon radiation: a diagrammatic approach

We consider the problem of soft gluon resummation for gauge theory amplitudes and cross sections, at next-to-eikonal order, using a Feynman diagram approach. At the amplitude level, we prove exponentiation for the set of factorizable contributions, and construct effective Feynman rules which can be used to compute next-to-eikonal emissions directly in the logarithm of the amplitude, finding agreement with earlier results obtained using path-integral methods. For cross sections, we also consider sub-eikonal corrections to the phase space for multiple soft-gluon emissions, which contribute to next-to-eikonal logarithms. To clarify the discussion, we examine a class of log(1 - x) terms in the Drell-Yan cross-section up to two loops. Our results are the first steps towards a systematic generalization of threshold resummations to next-to-leading power in the threshold expansion.Comment: 66 pages, 19 figure

Webs in multiparton scattering using the replica trick

Soft gluon exponentiation in non-abelian gauge theories can be described in terms of webs. So far this description has been restricted to amplitudes with two hard partons, where webs were defined as the colour-connected subset of diagrams. Here we generalise the concept of webs to the multi-leg case, where the hard interaction involves non-trivial colour flow. Using the replica trick from statistical physics we solve the combinatorial problem of non-abelian exponentiation to all orders. In particular, we derive an algorithm for computing the colour factor associated with any given diagram in the exponent. The emerging result is exponentiation of a sum of webs, where each web is a linear combination of a subset of diagrams that are mutually related by permuting the eikonal gluon attachments to each hard parton. These linear combinations are responsible for partial cancellation of subdivergences, conforming with the renormalization of a multi-leg eikonal vertex. We also discuss the generalisation of exponentiation properties to beyond the eikonal approximatio