261 research outputs found
Erratum to: Logarithmic accuracy of parton showers: a fixed-order study
ERRATUM TO: JHEP09(2018)033 https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP09(2018)03
Multivariate discrimination and the Higgs + W/Z search
A systematic method for optimizing multivariate discriminants is developed
and applied to the important example of a light Higgs boson search at the
Tevatron and the LHC. The Significance Improvement Characteristic (SIC),
defined as the signal efficiency of a cut or multivariate discriminant divided
by the square root of the background efficiency, is shown to be an extremely
powerful visualization tool. SIC curves demonstrate numerical instabilities in
the multivariate discriminants, show convergence as the number of variables is
increased, and display the sensitivity to the optimal cut values. For our
application, we concentrate on Higgs boson production in association with a W
or Z boson with H -> bb and compare to the irreducible standard model
background, Z/W + bb. We explore thousands of experimentally motivated,
physically motivated, and unmotivated single variable discriminants. Along with
the standard kinematic variables, a number of new ones, such as twist, are
described which should have applicability to many processes. We find that some
single variables, such as the pull angle, are weak discriminants, but when
combined with others they provide important marginal improvement. We also find
that multiple Higgs boson-candidate mass measures, such as from mild and
aggressively trimmed jets, when combined may provide additional discriminating
power. Comparing the significance improvement from our variables to those used
in recent CDF and DZero searches, we find that a 10-20% improvement in
significance against Z/W + bb is possible. Our analysis also suggests that the
H + W/Z channel with H -> bb is also viable at the LHC, without requiring a
hard cut on the W/Z transverse momentum.Comment: 41 pages, 5 tables, 29 figure
The mass area of jets
We introduce a new characteristic of jets called mass area. It is defined so
as to measure the susceptibility of the jet's mass to contamination from soft
background. The mass area is a close relative of the recently introduced
catchment area of jets. We define it also in two variants: passive and active.
As a preparatory step, we generalise the results for passive and active areas
of two-particle jets to the case where the two constituent particles have
arbitrary transverse momenta. As a main part of our study, we use the mass area
to analyse a range of modern jet algorithms acting on simple one and
two-particle systems. We find a whole variety of behaviours of passive and
active mass areas depending on the algorithm, relative hardness of particles or
their separation. We also study mass areas of jets from Monte Carlo simulations
as well as give an example of how the concept of mass area can be used to
correct jets for contamination from pileup. Our results show that the
information provided by the mass area can be very useful in a range of
jet-based analyses.Comment: 36 pages, 12 figures; v2: improved quality of two plots, added entry
in acknowledgments, nicer form of formulae in appendix A; v3: added section
with MC study and pileup correction, version accepted by JHE
Phenomenology of event shapes at hadron colliders
We present results for matched distributions of a range of dijet event shapes
at hadron colliders, combining next-to-leading logarithmic (NLL) accuracy in
the resummation exponent, next-to-next-to leading logarithmic (NNLL) accuracy
in its expansion and next-to-leading order (NLO) accuracy in a pure alpha_s
expansion. This is the first time that such a matching has been carried out for
hadronic final-state observables at hadron colliders. We compare our results to
Monte Carlo predictions, with and without matching to multi-parton tree-level
fixed-order calculations. These studies suggest that hadron-collider event
shapes have significant scope for constraining both perturbative and
non-perturbative aspects of hadron-collider QCD. The differences between
various calculational methods also highlight the limits of relying on
simultaneous variations of renormalisation and factorisation scale in making
reliable estimates of uncertainties in QCD predictions. We also discuss the
sensitivity of event shapes to the topology of multi-jet events, which are
expected to appear in many New Physics scenarios.Comment: 70 pages, 25 figures, additional material available from
http://www.lpthe.jussieu.fr/~salam/pp-event-shapes
Optimal jet radius in kinematic dijet reconstruction
Obtaining a good momentum reconstruction of a jet is a compromise between
taking it large enough to catch the perturbative final-state radiation and
small enough to avoid too much contamination from the underlying event and
initial-state radiation. In this paper, we compute analytically the optimal jet
radius for dijet reconstructions and study its scale dependence. We also
compare our results with previous Monte-Carlo studies.Comment: 30 pages, 11 figures; minor corrections; published in JHE
Jet Shapes and Jet Algorithms in SCET
Jet shapes are weighted sums over the four-momenta of the constituents of a
jet and reveal details of its internal structure, potentially allowing
discrimination of its partonic origin. In this work we make predictions for
quark and gluon jet shape distributions in N-jet final states in e+e-
collisions, defined with a cone or recombination algorithm, where we measure
some jet shape observable on a subset of these jets. Using the framework of
Soft-Collinear Effective Theory, we prove a factorization theorem for jet shape
distributions and demonstrate the consistent renormalization-group running of
the functions in the factorization theorem for any number of measured and
unmeasured jets, any number of quark and gluon jets, and any angular size R of
the jets, as long as R is much smaller than the angular separation between
jets. We calculate the jet and soft functions for angularity jet shapes \tau_a
to one-loop order (O(alpha_s)) and resum a subset of the large logarithms of
\tau_a needed for next-to-leading logarithmic (NLL) accuracy for both cone and
kT-type jets. We compare our predictions for the resummed \tau_a distribution
of a quark or a gluon jet produced in a 3-jet final state in e+e- annihilation
to the output of a Monte Carlo event generator and find that the dependence on
a and R is very similar.Comment: 62 pages plus 21 pages of Appendices, 13 figures, uses JHEP3.cls. v2:
corrections to finite parts of NLO jet functions, minor changes to plots,
clarified discussion of power corrections. v3: Journal version. Introductory
sections significantly reorganized for clarity, classification of logarithmic
accuracy clarified, results for non-Mercedes-Benz configurations adde
Jet vetoing and Herwig++
We investigate the simulation of events with gaps between jets with a veto on
additional radiation in the gap in Herwig++. We discover that the
currently-used random treatment of radiation in the parton shower is generating
some unphysical behaviour for wide-angle gluon emission in QCD 2 to 2
scatterings. We explore this behaviour quantitatively by making the same
assumptions as the parton shower in the analytical calculation. We then modify
the parton shower algorithm in order to correct the simulation of QCD
radiation.Comment: 18 pages, 11 figure
Probing the low transverse momentum domain of Z production with novel variables
The measurement of the low transverse momentum region of vector boson
production in Drell-Yan processes has long been invaluable to testing our
knowledge of QCD dynamics both beyond fixed-order in perturbation theory as
well as in the non-perturbative region. Recently the D\O\ collaboration have
introduced novel variables which lead to improved measurements compared to the
case of the standard QT variable. To complement this improvement on the
experimental side, we develop here a complete phenomenological study dedicated
in particular to the new \phi* variable. We compare our study, which contains
the state-of-the-art next-to-next-to-leading resummation of large logarithms
and a smooth matching to the full next-to-leading order result, to the
experimental data and find excellent agreement over essentially the entire
range of \phi*, even without direct inclusion of non-perturbative effects. We
comment on our findings and on the potential for future studies to constrain
non-perturbative behaviour.Comment: 20 pages, 7 figures. Version accepted for publication in JHEP. A
figure with comparison to RESBOS has been adde
Fluctuations, Saturation, and Diffractive Excitation in High Energy Collisions
Diffractive excitation is usually described by the Good--Walker formalism for
low masses, and by the triple-Regge formalism for high masses. In the
Good--Walker formalism the cross section is determined by the fluctuations in
the interaction. In this paper we show that by taking the fluctuations in the
BFKL ladder into account, it is possible to describe both low and high mass
excitation by the Good--Walker mechanism. In high energy collisions the
fluctuations are strongly suppressed by saturation, which implies that pomeron
exchange does not factorise between DIS and collisions. The Dipole Cascade
Model reproduces the expected triple-Regge form for the bare pomeron, and the
triple-pomeron coupling is estimated.Comment: 20 pages, 12 figure
Resummation of heavy jet mass and comparison to LEP data
The heavy jet mass distribution in e+e- collisions is computed to
next-to-next-to-next-to leading logarithmic (NNNLL) and next-to-next-to leading
fixed order accuracy (NNLO). The singular terms predicted from the resummed
distribution are confirmed by the fixed order distributions allowing a precise
extraction of the unknown soft function coefficients. A number of quantitative
and qualitative comparisons of heavy jet mass and the related thrust
distribution are made. From fitting to ALEPH data, a value of alpha_s is
extracted, alpha_s(m_Z)=0.1220 +/- 0.0031, which is larger than, but not in
conflict with, the corresponding value for thrust. A weighted average of the
two produces alpha_s(m_Z) = 0.1193 +/- 0.0027, consistent with the world
average. A study of the non-perturbative corrections shows that the flat
direction observed for thrust between alpha_s and a simple non-perturbative
shape parameter is not lifted in combining with heavy jet mass. The Monte Carlo
treatment of hadronization gives qualitatively different results for thrust and
heavy jet mass, and we conclude that it cannot be trusted to add power
corrections to the event shape distributions at this accuracy. Whether a more
sophisticated effective field theory approach to power corrections can
reconcile the thrust and heavy jet mass distributions remains an open question.Comment: 33 pages, 14 figures. v2 added effect of lower numerical cutoff with
improved extraction of the soft function constants; power correction
discussion clarified. v3 small typos correcte
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