Nuclear shadowing in deep inelastic scattering on nuclei: leading twist versus eikonal approaches

We use several diverse parameterizations of diffractive parton distributions, extracted in leading twist QCD analyses of the HERA diffractive deep inelastic scattering (DIS) data, to make predictions for leading twist nuclear shadowing of nuclear quark and gluon distributions in DIS on nuclei. We find that the HERA diffractive data are sufficiently precise to allow us to predict large nuclear shadowing for gluons and quarks, unambiguously. We performed detailed studies of nuclear shadowing for up and charm sea quarks and gluons within several scenarios of shadowing and diffractive slopes, as well as at central impact parameters. We compare these leading twist results with those obtained from the eikonal approach to nuclear shadowing (which is based on a very different space-time picture) and observe sharply contrasting predictions for the size and Q^2-dependence of nuclear shadowing. The most striking differences arise for the interaction of small dipoles with nuclei, in particular for the longitudinal structure function F_{L}^{A}.Comment: 43 pages, 16 figures, requires JHEP style fil

Determination of the longitudinal structure function FLF_{L} at HERA

Recent results from the HERA experiment H1 on the longitudinal stucture function $F_{L}$ of the proton are presented. They include proton structure function analyses with particular emphasis on those kinematic regions which are sensitive to $F_{L}$. All results can be consistently described within the framework of perturbative QCD.Comment: 16 pages, 11 figures (requires iopart, iopams and epsfig); Talk presented in the Intern. Workshop on New Trends in HERA Physics 2001, 17-22 June 2001, Ringberg Castle, Tegernsee, Germany; To appear in the Proceeding

Deep Inelastic Scattering at HERA

Results from the H1 and ZEUS experiments at HERA on deep inelastic scattering are reviewed. The data lead to a consistent picture of a steep rise in the F_2 structure function and in the gluon density within the proton. Important new information on the partonic structure of diffraction is emerging from H1 and ZEUS. The space-like region in which the weak and electromagnetic interactions become of equal strength is being explored for the first time. A possible excess of events at high x and Q^2 compared to the expectations of the Standard Model has been observed in both experiments.Comment: 80 pages, 42 figure

Open Heavy Flavor Production in QCD -- Conceptual Framework and Implementation Issues

Heavy flavor production is an important QCD process both in its own right and as a key component of precision global QCD analysis. Apparent disagreements between fixed-flavor scheme calculations of b-production rate with experimental measurements in hadro-, lepto-, and photo-production provide new impetus to a thorough examination of the theory and phenomenology of this process. We review existing methods of calculation, and place them in the context of the general PQCD framework of Collins. A distinction is drawn between scheme dependence and implementation issues related to quark mass effects near threshold. We point out a so far overlooked kinematic constraint on the threshold behavior, which greatly simplifies the variable flavor number scheme. It obviates the need for the elaborate existing prescriptions, and leads to robust predictions. It can facilitate the study of current issues on heavy flavor production as well as precision global QCD analysis.Comment: 13 pages, 10 figures, Proceedings of Ringberg Workshop: New Trends in HERA Physics 2001, Munich, German

A Parametrisation of the Inclusive Diffractive Cross Section at HERA

A recently proposed parametrization for the deep inelastic diffractive cross section is used to describe the H1 94 data. We find two possible solutions, and we discuss them is some detail.Comment: 13 pages, 7 eps figures, latex fil

Quaero@H1: An Interface to High-pT HERA Event Data

Distributions from high-pT HERA event data analyzed in a general search for new physics at H1 have been incorporated into Quaero, an algorithm designed to automate tests of specific hypotheses with high energy collider data. The use of Quaero@H1 to search for leptoquarks, R-parity violating supersymmetry, and excited quarks provides examples to develop intuition for the algorithm's performance.Comment: Submitted to Eur. Phys. J.

Measuring R-parity-violating couplings in dilepton production at the LHC

We revisit the issue of probing R-violating couplings of supersymmetric theories at hadronic colliders, particularly at the LHC. Concentrating on dimuon production, an evaluation of the optimal sensitivity to the R-violating coupling is performed through a maximum likelihood analysis. The measurement uncertainties are evaluated through a study of fully generated events processed through a fast simulation of the ATLAS detector. It is found that a host of R-violating couplings can be measured to a statistical accuracy of better than 10%, over a significant part of the m_{tilde f} -- lambda parameter space still allowed by low energy measurements. Since the bounds thus obtained do not simply scale as the squark mass, one can do significantly better at the LHC than at the Tevatron. The same analysis can also be extended to assess the reach of the LHC to effects due to any non-SM structure of the four-fermion amplitude, caused by exchanges of new particles with different spins such as leptoquarks and gravitons that are suggested by various theoretical ideas.Comment: 28 pages, 14 figures (uses JHEP3.cls

The pion structure function and jet production in γp→nX\gamma p \to n X

Despite its theoretical and practical importance, the pion structure is still badly constrained, particularly at low $x_{\pi}$ and in the sea-quark and gluon sectors. Recently ZEUS have presented data on dijet photoproduction with a leading neutron, which is dominated by slightly off-shell pion exchange and can be used to constrain the pion densities down to $x_{\pi}\simeq 0.01$. We compare a recent NLO calculation to the ZEUS data and find that the lower gluon densities of SMRS seem to be preferred by the data. Theoretical uncertainties, in particular from the pion flux, are discussed in some detail.Comment: Talk presented at the Ringberg Workshop on ``New Trends in HERA Physics 2001''. 12 pages, 10 postscript figure

Regge behaviour of distribution functions and t and x-evolutions of gluon distribution function at low-x

In this paper t and x-evolutions of gluon distribution function from Dokshitzer-Gribov-Lipatov-Altarelli-Parisi(DGLAP) evolution equation in leading order(LO) at low-x, assuming the Regge behaviour of quark and gluon at this limit, are presented. We compare our results of gluon distribution function with MRST 2001, MRST 2004 and GRV '98 parameterizations and show the compatibility of Regge behaviour of quark and gluon distribution functions with perturbative quantum chromodynamics(PQCD) at low-x. We also discuss the limitations of Taylor series expansion method used earlier to solve DGLAP evolution equations, in the Regge behaviour of distribution functions.Comment: 19 pages, 7 figure