Soft-QCD and UE spectra in pp collisions at very high CM energies (a Snowmass white paper)

We make some educated guesses for the extrapolations of typical soft-inclusive (minimum-bias, pileup, underlying-event) observables to proton-proton collisions at center-of-mass energies in the range 13 - 100 TeV. The numbers should be interpreted with (at least) a 10% uncertainty.Comment: 5 pages. Update (v2) adds numbers for 13 TeV and corrects bug in UE ET density estimate

QCD (&) Event Generators

Recent developments in QCD phenomenology have spurred on several improved approaches to Monte Carlo event generation, relative to the post--LEP state of the art. In this brief review, the emphasis is placed on approaches for 1) consistently merging fixed--order matrix element calculations with parton showers, 2) improving the parton shower algorithms themselves, and 3) improving the description of the underlying event in hadron collisions.Comment: Submitted to proceedings of DIS05, 12 page

A Quick Guide to SUSY Tools

The last decade has seen the emergence of a wide range of automated calculations for supersymmetric extensions of the Standard Model. This guide contains a brief summary of these, with the main focus on hadron collider phenomenology, as well as a brief introduction to the so-called SUSY Les Houches Accord. See also the Les Houches Web Repository for BSM Tools: http://www.ippp.dur.ac.uk/montecarlo/BSM/Comment: 6 pages. Prepared for the TeV4LHC Physics Landscapes summary repor

Non-perturbative QCD Effects and the Top Mass at the Tevatron

The modelling of non-perturbative effects is an important part of modern collider physics simulations. In hadron collisions there is some indication that the modelling of the interactions of the beam remnants, the underlying event, may require non-trivial colour reconnection effects to be present. We recently introduced a universally applicable toy model of such reconnections, based on hadronising strings. This model, which has one free parameter, has been implemented in the Pythia event generator. We then considered several parameter sets (`tunes'), constrained by fits to Tevatron minimum-bias data, and determined the sensitivity of a simplified top mass analysis to these effects, in exclusive semi-leptonic top events at the Tevatron. A first attempt at isolating the genuine non-perturbative effects gave an estimate of order +-0.5GeV from non-perturbative uncertainties. The results presented here are an update to the original study and include recent bug fixes of Pythia that influenced the tunings investigated.Comment: 8 pages, 5 figures, Submitted to the Proceedings of Top2008, 18-24 May 2008, La Biodola, Isola d'Elba, Ital

String Formation Beyond Leading Colour

We present a new model for the hadronisation of multi-parton systems, in which colour correlations beyond leading $N_C$ are allowed to influence the formation of confining potentials (strings). The multiplet structure of $SU(3)$ is combined with a minimisation of the string potential energy, to decide between which partons strings should form, allowing also for "baryonic" configurations (e.g., two colours can combine coherently to form an anticolour). In $e^+e^-$collisions, modifications to the leading-colour picture are small, suppressed by both colour and kinematics factors. But in $pp$ collisions, multi-parton interactions increase the number of possible subleading connections, counteracting their naive $1/N_C^2$ suppression. Moreover, those that reduce the overall string lengths are kinematically favoured. The model, which we have implemented in the PYTHIA 8 generator, is capable of reaching agreement not only with the important \left(n_\mathrm{charged}) distribution but also with measured rates (and ratios) of kaons and hyperons, in both $ee$ and $pp$ collisions. Nonetheless, the shape of their $p_\perp$ spectra remains challenging to explain.Comment: 48 pages, 22 figure

Study of particle production from quark and gluon jets in proton-proton collisions

We investigate whether and how different fragmentation properties of quarks and gluons affect identified particle spectra. We present a systematic study of $\pi$, $K$ and $p$ production in minimum bias (inelastic, non-diffractive), two- and three-jet events at RHIC, Tevatron and LHC energies. Through the study of two- and three-jet events and various jet-production channels we can directly access the fragmentation properties of quark and gluon jets. We present MC estimate for the contribution of quark and gluon jets to individual particle species spectra, that can be compared to experimental results and test our current knowledge of the physics behind particle production inside jets.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures, presented at Hot Quarks 201

Tuning Monte Carlo Generators: The Perugia Tunes

We present 9 new tunes of the pT-ordered shower and underlying-event model in PYTHIA 6.4. These "Perugia" tunes update and supersede the older "S0" family. The data sets used to constrain the models include hadronic Z0 decays at LEP, Tevatron minimum-bias data at 630, 1800, and 1960 GeV, Tevatron Drell-Yan data at 1800 and 1960 GeV, and SPS min-bias data at 200, 546, and 900 GeV. In addition to the central parameter set, called "Perugia 0", we introduce a set of 8 related "Perugia Variations" that attempt to systematically explore soft, hard, parton density, and colour structure variations in the theoretical parameters. Based on these variations, a best-guess prediction of the charged track multiplicity in inelastic, nondiffractive minimum-bias events at the LHC is made. Note that these tunes can only be used with PYTHIA 6, not with PYTHIA 8. Note: this report was updated in March 2011 with a new set of variations, collectively labeled "Perugia 2011", that are optimized for matching applications and which also take into account some lessons from the early LHC data. In order not to break the original text, these are described separately in Appendix B. Note 2: a subsequent "Perugia 2012" update is described in Appendix C.Comment: 46 page

An Introduction to PYTHIA 8.2

The PYTHIA program is a standard tool for the generation of events in high-energy collisions, comprising a coherent set of physics models for the evolution from a few-body hard process to a complex multiparticle final state. It contains a library of hard processes, models for initial- and final-state parton showers, matching and merging methods between hard processes and parton showers, multiparton interactions, beam remnants, string fragmentation and particle decays. It also has a set of utilities and several interfaces to external programs. PYTHIA 8.2 is the second main release after the complete rewrite from Fortran to C++, and now has reached such a maturity that it offers a complete replacement for most applications, notably for LHC physics studies. The many new features should allow an improved description of data.Comment: 45 page

Supersymmetry and Generic BSM Models in PYTHIA 8

We describe the implementation of supersymmetric models in PYTHIA 8, including production and decay of superparticles and allowing for violation of flavour, CP, and R-parity. We also present a framework for importing generic new-physics matrix elements into PYTHIA 8, in a way suitable for use with automated tools. We emphasize that this possibility should not be viewed as the only way to implement new-physics models in PYTHIA 8, but merely as an additional possibility on top of the already existing ones. Finally we address parton showers in exotic colour topologies, in particular ones involving colour epsilon tensors and colour sextets.Comment: 20 page

High-precision αs\alpha_s measurements from LHC to FCC-ee

This document provides a writeup of all contributions to the workshop on "High precision measurements of $\alpha_s$: From LHC to FCC-ee" held at CERN, Oct. 12--13, 2015. The workshop explored in depth the latest developments on the determination of the QCD coupling $\alpha_s$ from 15 methods where high precision measurements are (or will be) available. Those include low-energy observables: (i) lattice QCD, (ii) pion decay factor, (iii) quarkonia and (iv) $\tau$ decays, (v) soft parton-to-hadron fragmentation functions, as well as high-energy observables: (vi) global fits of parton distribution functions, (vii) hard parton-to-hadron fragmentation functions, (viii) jets in $e^\pm$p DIS and $\gamma$-p photoproduction, (ix) photon structure function in $\gamma$-$\gamma$, (x) event shapes and (xi) jet cross sections in $e^+e^-$ collisions, (xii) W boson and (xiii) Z boson decays, and (xiv) jets and (xv) top-quark cross sections in proton-(anti)proton collisions. The current status of the theoretical and experimental uncertainties associated to each extraction method, the improvements expected from LHC data in the coming years, and future perspectives achievable in $e^+e^-$ collisions at the Future Circular Collider (FCC-ee) with $\cal{O}$(1--100 ab$^{-1}$) integrated luminosities yielding 10$^{12}$ Z bosons and jets, and 10$^{8}$ W bosons and $\tau$ leptons, are thoroughly reviewed. The current uncertainty of the (preliminary) 2015 strong coupling world-average value, $\alpha_s(m_Z)$ = 0.1177 $\pm$ 0.0013, is about 1\%. Some participants believed this may be reduced by a factor of three in the near future by including novel high-precision observables, although this opinion was not universally shared. At the FCC-ee facility, a factor of ten reduction in the $\alpha_s$ uncertainty should be possible, mostly thanks to the huge Z and W data samples available.Comment: 135 pages, 56 figures. CERN-PH-TH-2015-299, CoEPP-MN-15-13. This document is dedicated to the memory of Guido Altarell