Forward Jet Production at small x in Next-to-Leading Order QCD

The production of forward jets of transverse energy E_T\simeq Q and large momentum fraction x_jet >> x is calculated in next-to-leading order including consistently direct and resolved virtual photon contributions. The predictions are compared to recent ZEUS and H1 data. Good agreement with the data is found.Comment: 11 pages, 3 eps figues; text in 2.1 clearified, figure 2 slightly changed; version to appear in Phys. Lett.

Inclusive Jet Production with Virtual Photons in Next-to-Leading Order QCD

We present a next-to-leading order calculation for the virtual photoproduction of one and two jets in $ep$ collisions. Soft and collinear singularities are extracted using the phase space slicing method. The collinear photon initial state singularity depends logarithmically on the mass of the virtual photon and is absorbed into the virtual photon structure function. An $\overline{MS}$ factorization scheme is defined similarly to the real photon case. Numerical results are presented for HERA conditions using the Snowmass jet definition for inclusive single jet and dijet cross sections. We study the dependence of these cross sections on the transverse energies and rapidities of the jets. Finally, we compare the ratio of the experimentally defined resolved and direct cross sections with recent ZEUS data as a function of the photon virtuality $P^2$.Comment: LaTeX, 28 pages, 7 figure

Next-to-leading order QCD calculations with parton showers II: soft singularities

Programs that calculate observables in quantum chromodynamics at next-to-leading order typically generate events that consist of partons rather than hadrons -- and just a few partons at that. These programs would be much more useful if the few partons were turned into parton showers, which could be given to one of the Monte Carlo event generators to produce hadron showers. In a previous paper, we have seen how to generate parton showers related to the final state collinear singularities of the perturbative calculation for the example of e+ + e- --> 3 jets. This paper discusses the treatment of the soft singularities.Comment: 26 pages with 5 figures. This version is close to the version to be publishe

Vegetation Dynamics of Campos Under Grazing/Fire Regimes in Southern Brazil

Natural grassland vegetation in Southern Brazil, known as campos, has most likely evolved under a disturbance regime that included fire and grazing (Pillar et al., 1997). Nowadays, the composition of the vegetation of campos is grazing- and fire-dependent (Boldrini et al., 1997). Its importance can be evaluated by the fact that it represents 37 % of the state’s area and provides 77 % of the slaughtered cattle at Rio Grande do Sul (Barcellos et al., 2002). The objective of this experiment was to evaluate the vegetation dynamics of campos under grazing/fire regimes in order to explore the resilience of the vegetation under the regimes studied

Combining QCD Matrix Elements at Next-to-Leading Order with Parton Showers in Electroproduction

We present a method to combine next-to-leading order (NLO) matrix elements in QCD with leading logarithmic parton showers by applying a suitably modified version of the phase-space-slicing method. The method consists of subsuming the NLO corrections into a scale-dependent phase-space-slicing parameter, which is then automatically adjusted to cut out the leading order, virtual, soft and collinear contributions in the matrix element calculation. In this way a positive NLO weight is obtained, which can be redistributed by a parton shower algortihm. As an example, we display the method for single-jet inclusive cross sections at O(alpha_s) in electroproduction. We numerically compare the modified version of the phase-space-slicing method with the standard approach and find very good agreement on the percent level.Comment: 21 pages, 2 eps figures. Revised section 2. To appear in PR

Strong Coupling Constant from Scaling Violations in Fragmentation Functions

We present a new determination of the strong coupling constant alpha_s through the scaling violations in the fragmentation functions for charged pions, charged kaons, and protons. In our fit we include the latest e+e- annihilation data from CERN LEP1 and SLAC SLC on the Z-boson resonance and older, yet very precise data from SLAC PEP at center-of-mass energy sqrt(s)=29 GeV. A new world average of alpha_s is given.Comment: 10 pages, 3 eps figue

Has the QCD RG-Improved Parton Content of Virtual Photons been Observed?

It is demonstrated that present $e^+e^-$ and DIS ep data on the structure of the virtual photon can be understood entirely in terms of the standard `naive' quark--parton model box approach. Thus the QCD renormalization group (RG) improved parton distributions of virtual photons, in particular their gluonic component, have not yet been observed. The appropriate kinematical regions for their future observation are pointed out as well as suitable measurements which may demonstrate their relevance.Comment: 24 pages, LaTeX, 5 figure

Fragmentation Functions for Pions, Kaons, and Protons at Next-to-Leading Order

We present new sets of fragmentation functions for charged pions, charged kaons, and protons, both at the leading and next-to-leading orders. They are fitted to the scaled-momentum distributions of these hadrons measured in e+e- annihilation on the Z-boson resonance at CERN LEP1 and SLAC SLC. These data partly come as light-, charm-, bottom-quark-enriched and gluon-jet samples, which allows us to treat all partons independently, after imposing the SU(2) flavour symmetry relations. In order to gain sensitivity to the scaling violation in fragmentation, we also include data from SLAC PEP, with center-of-mass energy root(s)=29 GeV, in our fits. This allows us to also determine the strong-coupling constant, with a competitive error. LEP1 data on the longitudinal cross section as well as DESY DORIS and PETRA data at lower energies nicely agree with theoretical predictions based on our fragmentation functions.Comment: 28 pages, 11 eps figure

Coherent Parton Showers with Local Recoils

We outline a new formalism for dipole-type parton showers which maintain exact energy-momentum conservation at each step of the evolution. Particular emphasis is put on the coherence properties, the level at which recoil effects do enter and the role of transverse momentum generation from initial state radiation. The formulated algorithm is shown to correctly incorporate coherence for soft gluon radiation. Furthermore, it is well suited for easing matching to next-to-leading order calculations.Comment: 24 pages, 3 figure