Significance of nonperturbative input to the transverse momentum dependent gluon density for hard processes at the LHC

Abstract

We study the role of the non-perturbative input to the transverse momentum dependent (TMD) gluon density in hard processes at the LHC. We derive the input TMD gluon distribution at low scale mu0^2 ~ 1 GeV^2 from the fit of the inclusive hadron spectra measured at low transverse momenta in pp collisions at the LHC and demonstrate that the best description of these spectra for larger hadron transverse momenta can be achieved by matching the derived TMD gluon distribution with the exact solution of the Balitsky-Fadin-Kuraev-Lipatov (BFKL) equation obtained at low x and small gluon transverse momenta outside the saturation region. Then, we extend the input TMD gluon density to higher mu^2 numerically using the Catani-Ciafoloni-Fiorani-Marchesini (CCFM) gluon evolution equation. A special attention is put to the phenomenological applications of obtained TMD gluon density to some LHC processes, which are sensitive to the gluon content of a proton.