6,422 research outputs found
Uncertainties of predictions from parton distribution functions II: the Hessian method
We develop a general method to quantify the uncertainties of parton
distribution functions and their physical predictions, with emphasis on
incorporating all relevant experimental constraints. The method uses the
Hessian formalism to study an effective chi-squared function that quantifies
the fit between theory and experiment. Key ingredients are a recently developed
iterative procedure to calculate the Hessian matrix in the difficult global
analysis environment, and the use of parameters defined as components along
appropriately normalized eigenvectors. The result is a set of 2d Eigenvector
Basis parton distributions (where d=16 is the number of parton parameters) from
which the uncertainty on any physical quantity due to the uncertainty in parton
distributions can be calculated. We illustrate the method by applying it to
calculate uncertainties of gluon and quark distribution functions, W boson
rapidity distributions, and the correlation between W and Z production cross
sections.Comment: 30 pages, Latex. Reference added. Normalization of Hessian matrix
changed to HEP standar
Neutrino Dimuon Production and the Strangeness Asymmetry of the Nucleon
We have performed the first global QCD analysis to include the CCFR and NuTeV
dimuon data, which provide direct constraints on the strange and anti-strange
parton distributions, and . To explore the strangeness
sector, we adopt a general parametrization of the non-perturbative functions satisfying basic QCD requirements. We find that the
strangeness asymmetry, as represented by the momentum integral , is sensitive to the dimuon data provided the
theoretical QCD constraints are enforced. We use the Lagrange Multiplier method
to probe the quality of the global fit as a function of and find
. Representative parton distribution sets spanning this
range are given. Comparisons with previous work are made.Comment: 23 pages, 4 figures; expanded version for publicatio
Pretreatment With Fragments of Substance-P or With Cholecystokinin Differentially Affects Recovery From Sub-Total Nigrostriatal 6-Hydroxydopamine Lesion
The neuropeptide substance P is known to have mnemogenic and reinforcing actions and can exert neurotrophic and regenerative
effects in vitro as well as in vivo. Furthermore, our previous work in the rat showed that either pre- or post-lesion treatment with
substance P can promote functional recovery in cases of partial nigrostriatal dopamine lesions. Other work has provided evidence that the effects of substance P might be differentially encoded by its C- and N-terminal fragments. The C-terminal fragment was found to be reinforcing, whereas the mnemogenic as well as neurotrophic properties have been ascribed to the N-terminal sequences. Given these relations, we asked here whether pre-lesion treatment with either a C- or an N-terminal fragment of substance P might differentially affect the behavioral and neurochemical outcome of nigrostriatal dopamine lesions. Therefore, either substance
P1−7 or substance P5−11
(37 nmol/kg each) was administered intraperitoneally daily for eight consecutive days before unilateral 6-hydroxy-dopamine lesions of the substantia nigra. Control rats received prelesion treatment with vehicle. Furthermore, we investigated the effects of pre-treatment with Boc-cholecystokinin-4 (0.91 nmol/kg), as we had found an increase in dopamine metabolism in animals that were pre-treated with cholecystokinin-8 in a former study. In accordance with our previous work, drug treatment effects were observed when excluding animals with most severe dopamine lesions: In animals with partial lesions (residual neostriatal dopamine levels of more than 10%), lesion-dependent asymmetries in turning behavior were observed in animals that were pre-treated with vehicle-, substance P1−7
, or Boc-cholecysto-kinin–4,. whereas turning after pre-treatment with substance P5−11
was not significantly asymmetrical. Furthermore, the ipsi- and contra-lateral neostriatal dopamine levels did not differ significantly in this group. Moreover, pre treatment with substance
P5−11
affected dopamine metabolism in the neostriatum and in the venral striatum, as indicated by increased ratios of dihydroxyphenyllic acid to dopamine. The data provide the first evidence that the promotive effects of substance-P treatment in the unilateral dopamine lesion
model might be mediated by its C-terminal and might depend on actions on residual dopamine mechanisms
kt Effects in Direct-Photon Production
We discuss the phenomenology of initial-state parton-kt broadening in
direct-photon production and related processes in hadron collisions. After a
brief summary of the theoretical basis for a Gaussian-smearing approach, we
present a systematic study of recent results on fixed-target and collider
direct-photon production, using complementary data on diphoton and pion
production to provide empirical guidance on the required amount of kt
broadening. This approach provides a consistent description of the observed
pattern of deviation of next-to-leading order QCD calculations relative to the
direct-photon data, and accounts for the shape and normalization difference
between fixed-order perturbative calculations and the data. We also discuss the
uncertainties in this phenomenological approach, the implications of these
results on the extraction of the gluon distribution of the nucleon, and the
comparison of our findings to recent related work.Comment: LaTeX, uses revtex and epsf, 37 pages, 15 figure
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