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, $s(x)$ and $\bar{s}(x)$. To explore the strangeness sector, we adopt a general parametrization of the non-perturbative $s(x), \bar{s}(x)$ functions satisfying basic QCD requirements. We find that the strangeness asymmetry, as represented by the momentum integral $[S^{-}]\equiv \int_0^1 x [s(x)-\bar{s}(x)] dx$, 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 $[S^-]$ and find $-0.001 < [S^-] < 0.004$. Representative parton distribution sets spanning this range are given. Comparisons with previous work are made.Comment: 23 pages, 4 figures; expanded version for publicatio

Tau Polarization in Tau-Neutrino Nucleon Scattering

We investigate the spin polarization of \tau^{\pm} leptons produced in \nu_{\tau} and \bar{\nu}_{\tau} nucleon scattering via charged currents. Quasi-elastic scattering, \Delta resonance production and deep inelastic scattering processes are studied. The polarization information is essential for measuring the \tau^{\pm} appearance rate in long baseline neutrino oscillation experiments, because the decay particle distributions depend crucially on the \tau^{\pm} spin. In this article, we calculate the spin density matrix of each process and estimate the spin polarization vector in medium and high neutrino energy interactions. We find that the produced \tau^{\pm}'s have high degree of polarization, and their spin direction depends non-trivially on the energy and the scattering angle of \tau^{\pm} in the laboratory frame.Comment: 23 pages, 35 figures; compile errors corrected; notation errors in Eq.(30) and (31) corrected, typo error in Eq.(40) corrected, references and comments in footnote adde

Heavy Quark Production and PDF's Subgroup Report

We present a status report of a variety of projects related to heavy quark production and parton distributions for the Tevatron Run II.Comment: Latex. 8 pages, 7 eps figures. Contribution to the Physics at Run II Workshops: QCD and Weak Boson Physic

On The Injection Spectrum of Ultrahigh Energy Cosmic Rays in the Top-Down Scenario

We analyze the uncertainties involved in obtaining the injection spectra of UHECR particles in the top-down scenario of their origin. We show that the DGLAP $Q^2$ evolution of fragmentation functions (FF) to $Q=M_X$ (mass of the X particle) from their initial values at low $Q$ is subject to considerable uncertainties. We therefore argue that, for x\lsim 0.1 (the $x$ region of interest for most large $M_X$ values of interest, $x\equiv 2E/M_X$ being the scaled energy variable), the FF obtained from DGLAP evolution is no more reliable than that provided, for example, by a simple Gaussian form (in the variable $\ln(1/x)$) obtained under the Modified Leading Log Approximation (MLLA). Additionally, we find that for x\gsim0.1, the evolution in $Q^2$ of the singlet FF, which determines the injection spectrum, is ``minimal'' -- the singlet FF changes by barely a factor of 2 after evolving it over $\sim$ 14 orders of magnitude in $Q\sim M_X$. We, therefore, argue that as long as the measurement of the UHECR spectrum above \sim10^{20}\ev is going to remain uncertain by a factor of 2 or larger, it is good enough for most practical purposes to directly use any one of the available initial parametrisations of the FFs in the $x$ region x\gsim0.1 based on low energy data even without evolving them to the requisite $Q^2$ value.Comment: Minor changes, added a reference, version to appear in Phys. Rev.

Microcanonical Jet-fragmentation in proton-proton collisions at LHC Energy

In this paper, we show that the distribution of the longitudinal momentum fraction of charged hadrons $dN/dz$ inside jets stemming from proton-proton collisions at $\sqrt{s}$ = 7 TeV center of mass energy can be described by a statistical jet-fragmentation model. This model combines microcanonical statistics and super-statistics induced by multiplicity fluctuations. The resulting scale dependence of the parameters of the model turns out to be similar to what was observed in electron-positron annihilations in Urmossy, Barnaf\"oldi, and Bir\'o.Comment: 7 pages, 8 figure

Variation of jet quenching from RHIC to LHC and thermal suppression of QCD coupling constant

We perform a joint jet tomographic analysis of the data on the nuclear modification factor $R_{AA}$ from PHENIX at RHIC and ALICE at LHC. The computations are performed accounting for radiative and collisional parton energy loss with running coupling constant. Our results show that the observed slow variation of $R_{AA}$ from RHIC to LHC indicates that the QCD coupling constant is suppressed in the quark-gluon plasma produced at LHC.Comment: 9 pages, 2 figure

Can the polarization of the strange quarks in the proton be positive ?

Recently, the HERMES Collaboration at DESY, using a leading order QCD analysis of their data on semi-inclusive deep inelastic production of charged hadrons, reported a marginally positive polarization for the strange quarks in the proton. We argue that a non-negative polarization is almost impossible.Comment: 6 pages, latex, minor changes in the discussion after Eq. (9

Higher Twist, ξw\xi_w Scaling, and Effective LOPDFsLO PDFs for Lepton Scattering in the Few GeV Region

We use a new scaling variable $\xi_w$, and add low $Q^2$ modifications to GRV98 leading order parton distribution functions such that they can be used to model electron, muon and neutrino inelastic scattering cross sections (and also photoproduction) at both very low and high energies.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures. To be published in J. Phys. G (Conf. Proceedings) based on two talks by Arie Bodek at the NuFact$'02$ conference, Imperial College, London, England, July 200