80 research outputs found
Heavy-quark mass dependence in global PDF analyses and 3- and 4-flavour parton distributions
We study the sensitivity of our recent MSTW 2008 NLO and NNLO PDF analyses to
the values of the charm- and bottom-quark masses, and we provide additional
public PDF sets for a wide range of these heavy-quark masses. We quantify the
impact of varying m_c and m_b on the cross sections for W, Z and Higgs
production at the Tevatron and the LHC. We generate 3- and 4-flavour versions
of the (5-flavour) MSTW 2008 PDFs by evolving the input PDFs and alpha_S
determined from fits in the 5-flavour scheme, including the eigenvector PDF
sets necessary for calculation of PDF uncertainties. As an example of their
use, we study the difference in the Z total cross sections at the Tevatron and
LHC in the 4- and 5-flavour schemes. Significant differences are found,
illustrating the need to resum large logarithms in Q^2/m_b^2 by using the
5-flavour scheme. The 4-flavour scheme is still necessary, however, if cuts are
imposed on associated (massive) b-quarks, as is the case for the experimental
measurement of Z b bbar production and similar processes.Comment: 40 pages, 11 figures. Grids can be found at
http://projects.hepforge.org/mstwpdf/ and in LHAPDF V5.8.4. v2: version
published in EPJ
Charge asymmetry ratio as a probe of quark flavour couplings of resonant particles at the LHC
We show how a precise knowledge of parton distribution functions, in
particular those of the u and d quarks, can be used to constrain a certain
class of New Physics models in which new heavy charged resonances couple to
quarks and leptons. We illustrate the method by considering a left-right
symmetric model with a W' from a SU(2)_R gauge sector produced in
quark-antiquark annihilation and decaying into a charged lepton and a heavy
Majorana neutrino. We discuss a number of quark and lepton mixing scenarios,
and simulate both signals and backgrounds in order to determine the size of the
expected charge asymmetry. We show that various quark-W' mixing scenarios can
indeed be constrained by charge asymmetry measurements at the LHC, particularly
at 14 TeV centre of mass energy.Comment: 14 pages, 3 figure
Hadronization effects in event shape moments
We study the moments of hadronic event shapes in annihilation within
the context of next-to-next-to-leading order (NNLO) perturbative QCD
predictions combined with non-perturbative power corrections in the dispersive
model. This model is extended to match upon the NNLO perturbative prediction.
The resulting theoretical expression has been compared to experimental data
from JADE and OPAL, and a new value for has been determined, as
well as of the average coupling in the non-perturbative region below
GeV within the dispersive model:
\alpha_s(M_Z)&=0.1153\pm0.0017(\mathrm{exp})\pm0.0023(\mathrm{th}),\alpha_0&=0.5132\pm0.0115(\mathrm{exp})\pm0.0381(\mathrm{th}),
The precision of the value has been improved in comparison to
the previously available next-to-leading order analysis. We observe that the
resulting power corrections are considerably larger than those estimated from
hadronization models in multi-purpose event generator programs.Comment: 23 pages, 5 figures, 15 tables. Few minor changes. Version accepted
for publication in European Physical Journal C
Radio emission and jets from microquasars
To some extent, all Galactic binary systems hosting a compact object are
potential `microquasars', so much as all galactic nuclei may have been quasars,
once upon a time. The necessary ingredients for a compact object of stellar
mass to qualify as a microquasar seem to be: accretion, rotation and magnetic
field. The presence of a black hole may help, but is not strictly required,
since neutron star X-ray binaries and dwarf novae can be powerful jet sources
as well. The above issues are broadly discussed throughout this Chapter, with a
a rather trivial question in mind: why do we care? In other words: are jets a
negligible phenomenon in terms of accretion power, or do they contribute
significantly to dissipating gravitational potential energy? How do they
influence their surroundings? The latter point is especially relevant in a
broader context, as there is mounting evidence that outflows powered by
super-massive black holes in external galaxies may play a crucial role in
regulating the evolution of cosmic structures. Microquasars can also be thought
of as a form of quasars for the impatient: what makes them appealing, despite
their low number statistics with respect to quasars, are the fast variability
time-scales. In the first approximation, the physics of the jet-accretion
coupling in the innermost regions should be set by the mass/size of the
accretor: stellar mass objects vary on 10^5-10^8 times shorter time-scales,
making it possible to study variable accretion modes and related ejection
phenomena over average Ph.D. time-scales. [Abridged]Comment: 28 pages, 13 figures, To appear in Belloni, T. (ed.): The Jet
Paradigm - From Microquasars to Quasars, Lect. Notes Phys. 794 (2009
Measurement of the W+W-gamma Cross Section and Direct Limits on Anomalous Quartic Gauge Boson Couplings at LEP
The process e+e- -> W+W-gamma is analysed using the data collected with the
L3 detector at LEP at a centre-of-mass energy of 188.6GeV, corresponding to an
integrated luminosity of 176.8pb^-1. Based on a sample of 42 selected W+W-
candidates containing an isolated hard photon, the W+W-gamma cross section,
defined within phase-space cuts, is measured to be: sigma_WWgamma = 290 +/- 80
+/- 16 fb, consistent with the Standard Model expectation. Including the
process e+e- -> nu nu gamma gamma, limits are derived on anomalous
contributions to the Standard Model quartic vertices W+W- gamma gamma and W+W-Z
gamma at 95% CL: -0.043 GeV^-2 < a_0/Lambda^2 < 0.043 GeV^-2 0.08 GeV^-2 <
a_c/Lambda^2 < 0.13 GeV^-2 0.41 GeV^-2 < a_n/Lambda^2 < 0.37 GeV^-2
Observation of hard scattering in photoproduction events with a large rapidity gap at HERA
Events with a large rapidity gap and total transverse energy greater than 5
GeV have been observed in quasi-real photoproduction at HERA with the ZEUS
detector. The distribution of these events as a function of the
centre of mass energy is consistent with diffractive scattering. For total
transverse energies above 12 GeV, the hadronic final states show predominantly
a two-jet structure with each jet having a transverse energy greater than 4
GeV. For the two-jet events, little energy flow is found outside the jets. This
observation is consistent with the hard scattering of a quasi-real photon with
a colourless object in the proton.Comment: 19 pages, latex, 4 figures appended as uuencoded fil
The e+e- -> Z gamma gamma -> q q gamma gamma Reaction at LEP and Constraints on Anomalous Quartic Gauge Boson Couplings
The cross section of the process e^+ e^- -> Z \gamma\gamma -> qq \gamma
\gamma is measured with 215 pb^-1 of data collected with the L3 detector during
the final LEP run at centre-of-mass energies around 205 GeV and 207 GeV. No
deviation from the Standard Model expectation is observed. The full data sample
of 713 pb^-1, collected above the Z resonance, is used to constrain the
coefficients of anomalous quartic gauge boson couplings to:
-0.02 GeV^-2 < a_0/\Lambda^2 < 0.03 GeV^-2 and -0.07 GeV^-2 < a_c/\Lambda^2 <
0.05 GeV^-2, at 95% confidence level
Study of the W+W-gamma Process and Limits on Anomalous Quartic Gauge Boson Couplings at LEP
The process e+e- -> W+ W- gamma is studied using the data collected by the L3
detector at LEP. New results, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of
427.4 pb-1 at centre-of-mass energies from 192 GeV to 207 GeV, are presented.
The W+W- gamma cross sections are measured to be in agreement with Standard
Model expectations. No hints of anomalous quartic gauge boson couplings are
observed. Limits at 95% confidence level are derived using also the process
e+e- --> nu nubar gamma gamma
- …