Angular-ordered Parton Shower Research Articles

Rings and strings: a basis for understanding subleading colour and QCD coherence beyond the two-jet limit

Guided by the colour-diagonal structure of collinear singularities, we identify a set of kinematic basis functions that are well suited to the simplification of soft gluon emission amplitudes. In particular, these basis functions, which emerge naturally in the colour flow basis, isolate the subleading colour contributions and improve the statistical convergence of the CVolver amplitude-evolution code. They also allow us to extend current angular-ordered parton showers beyond the azimuthally-averaged, two-jet limit.

Initial state radiation in the Herwig 7 angular-ordered parton shower

We study the simulation of initial-state radiation in angular-ordered parton showers in order to investigate how different interpretations of the ordering variable affect the logarithmic accuracy of such showers. This also enables us to implement a recoil scheme which is consistent between final-state and initial-state radiation. We present optimal values of the strong coupling and intrinsic transverse momentum to be used in each version of the parton shower, tuned using Z0-boson production at the LHC at 7 TeV. With these tuned showers, we perform a phenomenological study of the Drell-Yan process at several centre-of-mass energies.

Herwig 7.2 release note

A new release of the Monte Carlo event generator Herwig (version 7.2) is now available. This version introduces a number of improvements over the major version 7.0, notably: multi-jet merging with the dipole shower at LO and NLO QCD; spin correlations in both the dipole and angular-ordered parton showers; an improved choice of evolution variable in the angular-ordered parton shower; improvements to mass effects and top decays in the dipole shower, improvements to the simulation of multiple-parton interactions, including diffractive processes; a new model for baryonic colour reconnection; improvements to strangeness production; as well as a new tune of the hadronisation parameters and support for generic Lorentz structures in BSM models. This article illustrates new features of versions 7.1 and 7.2.

Logarithmic accuracy of angular-ordered parton showers

We study the logarithmic accuracy of angular-ordered parton showers by considering the singular limits of multiple emission matrix elements. This allows us to consider different choices for the evolution variable and propose a new choice which has both the correct logarithmic behaviour and improved performance away from the singular regions. In particular the description of e+e− event shapes in the non-logarithmic region is significantly improved.

A Monte-Carlo simulation of double parton scattering

In this work, a new Monte-Carlo simulation of double parton scattering (DPS) at parton level is presented. The simulation is based on the QCD framework developed recently by M. Diehl, J. R. Gaunt and K. Schönwald. With this framework, the dynamics of the 1 → 2 perturbative splittings is consistently included inside the simulation, with the impact-parameter dependence taken into account. The simulation evolves simultaneously two hard systems from a common hard scale down to the hadronic scale. The evolution is performed using an angular-ordered parton shower which is combined with a set of double parton distributions that depend explicitly on the inter-parton distance. An illustrative study is performed in the context of same-sign WW production at the LHC, with the quark content of the proton being limited to three flavours. In several distributions we see differences compared to DPS models in Herwig, Pythia, and the DPS “pocket formula”.

On the cutoff dependence of the quark mass parameter in angular ordered parton showers

We show that the presence of an infrared cutoff Q0 in the parton shower (PS) evolution for massive quarks implies that the generator quark mass corresponds to a Q0-dependent short-distance mass scheme and is therefore not the pole mass. Our analysis considers an angular ordered parton shower based on the coherent branching formalism for quasi-collinear stable heavy quarks and splitting functions at next-to-leading logarithmic (NLL) order, and it is based on the analysis of the peak of hemisphere jet mass distributions. We show that NLL shower evolution is sufficient to describe the peak jet mass at full next-to-leading order (NLO). We determine the relation of this short-distance mass to the pole mass at NLO. We also show that the shower cut Q0 affects soft radiation in a universal way for massless and quasi-collinear massive quark production. The basis of our analysis is (i) an analytic solution of the PS evolution based on the coherent branching formalism, (ii) an implementation of the infrared cut Q0 of the angular ordered shower into factorized analytic calculations in the framework of Soft-Collinear-Effective-Theory (SCET) and (iii) the dependence of the peak of the jet mass distribution on the shower cut. Numerical comparisons to simulations with the Herwig 7 event generator confirm our findings. Our analysis provides an important step towards a full understanding concerning the interpretation of top quark mass measurements based on direct reconstruction.

A positive-weight next-to-leading-order Monte Carlo simulation of deep inelastic scattering and Higgs boson production via vector–boson fusion in Herwig++

The positive weight next-to-leading-order matching formalism (POWHEG) is applied to Deep Inelastic Scattering (DIS) and the related Higgs boson production via vector-boson fusion process in the Herwig++ Monte Carlo event generator. This scheme combines parton shower simulation and next-to-leading-order calculation in a consistent way which only produces positive weight events. The simulation contains a full implementation of the truncated shower required to correctly model soft emissions in an angular-ordered parton shower.

Next-to-leading-order Monte Carlo simulation of diphoton production in hadronic collisions

We present a method, based on the positive weight next-to-leading-order matching formalism (POWHEG), to simulate photon production processes at next-to-leading-order (NLO). This technique is applied to the simulation of diphoton production in hadron-hadron collisions. The algorithm consistently combines the parton shower and NLO calculation, producing only positive weight events. The simulation includes both the photon fragmentation contribution and a full implementation of the truncated shower required to correctly describe soft emissions in an angular-ordered parton shower.

A positive-weight next-to-leading order simulation of weak boson pair production

In this article we describe simulations of ZZ, WZ and WW production based on the positive weight next-to-leading-order matching scheme, Powheg, in the Herwig++ event generator. Building on earlier efforts within the Herwig++ framework, the simulation includes a full description of truncated showering effects, required to correctly model soft, wide angle, emissions in angular-ordered parton showers. We utilize simple relations among each of the diboson cross sections, holding to order alpha_S, in constructing the simulation. Spin correlation effects are also included in the decays of the vector bosons at the tree order. A large part of this work is concerned with a full and thorough validation of the simulations through comparisons with alternative methods and calculations.

Angular-ordered parton showers with medium-modified splitting functions

Modified Altarelli-Parisi splitting functions were recenty proposed to model multi-parton radiation in a dense medium and describe jet quenching, one of most striking features of heavy-ion collisions. We implement medium-modified splitting functions in the HERWIG parton shower algorithm, which satisfies the angular ordering prescription, and present a few parton-level results, such as transverse momentum, angle and energy-fraction distributions, which exhibit remarkable medium-induced effects. We also comment on the comparison with respect to the results yielded by other implementations of medium-modified splitting functions in the framework of virtuality-ordered parton cascades.

A modified CKKW matrix element merging approach to angular-ordered parton showers

A modified version of the CKKW matrix element merging algorithm is presented, suitable for use in an angular-ordered parton shower, using truncated showers and forced splittings. The algorithm is implemented in the Herwig++ Monte Carlo event generator for the benchmark process e+e- -> hadrons. Results are presented at parton and hadron levels, demonstrating a smooth merging between the matrix elements and parton shower and an improved description of LEP data.

A positive-weight Next-to-Leading Order Monte Carlo simulation for Higgs boson production

In this article we describe simulations of Higgs boson production via the gluon fusion and Higgs-strahlung processes, using the positive weight next-to-leading-order (NLO) matching scheme, POWHEG, in the Herwig++ 2.3 event generator. This formalism consistently incorporates the full NLO corrections to these processes within the parton shower simulation, without the production of negative weight events. These simulations include a full implementation of the truncated shower required to correctly model soft emissions in an angular-ordered parton shower. We present a thorough validation of these simulations, comparing them to other methods and calculations. The results obtained for the gluon fusion process corroborate, and provide detailed explanations for, findings reported by Alioli et al (arXiv:0812.0578) using an independent POWHEG simulation, neglecting truncated shower effects, released at the same time as our code.

A positive-weight next-to-leading order Monte Carlo simulation of Drell-Yan vector boson production

The positive weight next-to-leading-order (NLO) matching scheme (POWHEG) is applied to Drell-Yan vector boson production in the Herwig++ Monte Carlo event generator. This approach consistently combines the NLO calculation and parton shower simulation, without the production of negative weight events. The simulation includes a full implementation of the truncated shower required to correctly describe soft emissions in an angular-ordered parton shower, for the first time. The results are compared with Tevatron W and Z production data and predictions for the transverse momentum spectrum of gauge bosons at the LHC presented.

Matrix-element corrections to parton shower algorithms

We discuss two ways in which parton shower algorithms can be supplemented by matrix-element corrections to ensure the correct hard limit: by using complementary phase-space regions, or by modifying the shower itself. In the former case, existing algorithms are self-consistent only if the total correction is small. In the latter case, existing algorithms are never self-consistent, a problem that is particularly severe for angular-ordered parton shower algorithms. We show how to construct self-consistent algorithms in both cases.