Kinematical Cuts Research Articles

A determination of the fragmentation functions of pions, kaons, and protons with faithful uncertainties

We present NNFF1.0, a new determination of the fragmentation functions (FFs) of charged pions, charged kaons, and protons/antiprotons from an analysis of single-inclusive hadron production data in electron–positron annihilation. This determination, performed at leading, next-to-leading, and next-to-next-to-leading order in perturbative QCD, is based on the NNPDF methodology, a fitting framework designed to provide a statistically sound representation of FF uncertainties and to minimise any procedural bias. We discuss novel aspects of the methodology used in this analysis, namely an optimised parametrisation of FFs and a more efficient chi ^2 minimisation strategy, and validate the FF fitting procedure by means of closure tests. We then present the NNFF1.0 sets, and discuss their fit quality, their perturbative convergence, and their stability upon variations of the kinematic cuts and the fitted dataset. We find that the systematic inclusion of higher-order QCD corrections significantly improves the description of the data, especially in the small-z region. We compare the NNFF1.0 sets to other recent sets of FFs, finding in general a reasonable agreement, but also important differences. Together with existing sets of unpolarised and polarised parton distribution functions (PDFs), FFs and PDFs are now available from a common fitting framework for the first time.

Extending the LHC reach for new physics with sub-millimeter displaced vertices

Particles with a sub-millimeter decay length appear in many models of physics beyond the Standard Model. However, their longevity has been often ignored in their LHC searches and they have been regarded as promptly-decaying particles. In this letter, we show that, by requiring displaced vertices on top of the event selection criteria used in the ordinary search strategies for promptly-decaying particles, we can considerably extend the LHC reach for particles with a decay length of ≳100 μm. We discuss a way of reconstructing sub-millimeter displaced vertices by exploiting the same technique used for the primary vertex reconstruction on the assumption that the metastable particles are always pair-produced and their decay products contain high-pT jets. We show that, by applying a cut based on displaced vertices on top of standard kinematical cuts for the search of new particles, the LHC reach can be significantly extended if the decay length is ≳100 μm. In addition, we may measure the lifetime of the target particle through the reconstruction of displaced vertices, which plays an important role in understanding the new physics behind the metastable particles.

Online Data Reduction using Track and Vertex Reconstruction on GPUs for the Mu3e Experiment

The Mu3e experiment searches for the lepton flavour violating decay μ + → e + e − e + , aiming to achieve a sensitivity of 2 · 10 −15 in its first phase and ultimately aspiring to a final sensitivity of 10 −16 . During the first phase of the experiment, a muon rate of ∼ 10 8 μ /s will be available, resulting in a data rate of ∼ 80 Gbit/s. The trigger-less readout system is based on optical links and switching FPGAs sending the complete detector data for a time slice to one node of the filter farm. A full online reconstruction is necessary to reduce the data rate to a manageable amount to be written to disk. Graphics processing units (GPUs) are used to fit tracks with a non-iterative 3D tracking algorithm for multiple scattering dominated resolution. In addition, a three track vertex selection is performed by calculating the vertex position from the intersections of the tracks. Together with kinematic cuts, this allows for a reduction of the output data rate to below 100MB/s using 12 DAQ PCs.

Probing the BFKL dynamics in inclusive three jet production at the LHC

We propose the study of new observables in LHC inclusive events with three tagged jets, one in the forward direction, one in the backward direction and both well-separated in rapidity from the each other (Mueller-Navelet jets), together with a third jet tagged in central regions of rapidity. Since non-tagged associated mini-jet multiplicity is allowed, we argue that projecting the cross sections on azimuthal-angle components can provide several distinct tests of the BFKL dynamics. Realistic LHC kinematical cuts are introduced.

Boosting the charged Higgs search prospects using jet substructure at the LHC

Charged Higgs bosons are predicted in variety of theoretically well-motivated new physics models with extended Higgs sectors. In this study, we focus on a type-II two Higgs doublet model (2HDM-II) and consider a heavy charged Higgs with its mass ranging from 500 GeV to 1 TeV as dictated by the $b\to s\gamma$ constraints which render $M_{H^\pm}>480$ GeV. We study the dominant production mode $H^\pm t$ associated production with $H^\pm \to W^\pm A$ being the dominant decay channel when the pseudoscalar $A$ is considerably lighter. For such a heavy charged Higgs, both the decay products $W^\pm$ and $A$ are relatively boosted. In such a scenario, we apply the jet substructure analysis of tagging the fat pseudoscalar and $W$ jets in order to eliminate the standard model background efficiently. We perform a detailed detector simulation for the signal and background processes at the 14 TeV LHC. We introduce various kinematical cuts to determine the signal significance for a number of benchmark points with charged Higgs boson mass from 500 GeV to 1 TeV in the $W^\pm A$ decay channel. Finally we perform a multivariate analysis utilizing a boosted decision tree algorithm to optimize these significances.

Influence of kinematic cuts on the net charge distribution

The higher moments of the net charge distributions, e.g. the skewness and kurtosis, are studied within an infinite hadronic matter calculation in a transport approach. By dividing the box into several parts, the volume dependence of the fluctuations is investigated. After confirming that the initial distributions follow the expectations from a binomial distribution, the influence of quantum number conservation in this case the net charge in the system on the higher moments is evaluated. For this purpose, the composition of the hadron gas is adjusted and only pions and ρ mesons are simulated to investigate the charge conservation effect. In addition, the effect of imposing kinematic cuts in momentum space is analysed. The role of resonance excitations and decays on the higher moments can also be studied within this model. This work is highly relevant to understand the experimental measurements of higher moments obtained in the RHIC beam energy scan and their comparison to lattice results and other theoretical calculations assuming infinite matter.

Where does the X(5568) structure come from?

We study the semi-exclusive production of $\pi^\pm B_s^0$ pairs in hadron colliders which is associated with the $X(5568)$ structure observed by the D0 Collaboration in 2016, but that was not confirmed by LHCb and CMS later. The reason of its appearance in the D0 and absence in LHCb and CMS is discussed in this letter. In a semi-exclusive process, one might miss the third particle which is produced together with the $\pi^\pm B_s^0$ simultaneously. In the three-body Dalitz plot, once the remaining region is narrow enough after the kinematic cuts, its reflection to another invariant mass distribution will accumulate a large number of events within a specific energy region. If there is an enhancement in the remaining region, it will make the reflection structure more pronounced. The precise line shape of the reflection will depend on the specific interaction form. A combined study of different cone cuts and the low-energy dynamics, e.g. the Landau singularity, demonstrates that the $X(5568)$ structure could come from this kinematic reflection. This conclusion can be checked by both searching for the enhancement in another invariant mass distribution, such as $B_s^0\bar{B}^0$, and the cone cut dependence of the $X(5568)$ mass. Such a combined study can be used to distinguish the effects of the triangle singularity from a genuine state. We also propose how to avoid this kinematic reflection in future experimental analysis.

Single production ofX±5/3andY∓4/3vectorlike quarks at the LHC

Two triplet vector-like quarks (VLQs) with hypercharges of $Y=2/3, -1/3$ and one singlet scalar boson are embedded in the standard model (SM) to resolve the 750 GeV diphoton excess. The constraints on the tree-level Higgs- and $Z$-mediated flavor-changing neutral currents are discussed in detail. Besides the resolution of excess, it is found that the signal strength of diphoton Higgs decay can have a $10\%$ deviation from the SM prediction and that the upper limits of the branching ratios for rare top-quark decays are $BR(t\to c (h, Z)) < (6.8, 0.48) \times 10^{-5}$. We find that the production cross section of a single VLQ by electroweak processes is larger than that of VLQ-pair by QCD processes. To explore the signals of the heavy VLQs at the LHC, we throughly analyze the production of single $X_{\pm 5/3}$ and $Y_{\mp 4/3}$ via $q_i q'_j$ annihilations in $pp$ collisions at $\sqrt{s}=13$ TeV. It is found that the electroweak production cross sections for $d X_{5/3}$, $u Y_{-4/3} $, and $d Y_{4/3} $ channels with $m_X=m_Y=1$ TeV can be $84.3$, $72.3$, and $157.8$ fb, respectively; and the dominant decay modes are $X_{5/3} \to (c,t) W^+$ and $Y_{-4/3} \to (s,b) W^-$. With adopting kinematic cuts, the significance for $pp\to d W^+ t$ channel can be over $5\sigma$.

Effect of resonance decay on conserved number fluctuations in a hadron resonance gas model

We study the effect of charged secondaries coming from resonance decay on the net-baryon, net-charge and net-strangeness fluctuations in high energy heavy-ion collisions within the hadron resonance gas (HRG) model. We emphasize the importance of including weak decays along with other resonance decays in the HRG, while comparing with the experimental observables. The effect of kinematic cuts on resonances and primordial particles on the conserved number fluctuations are also studied. The HRG model calculations with the inclusion of resonance decays and kinematical cuts are compared with the recent experimental data from STAR and PHENIX experiments. We find a good agreement between our model calculations and the experimental measurements for both net-proton and net-charge distributions.

Search for optimal conditions for exploring double-parton scattering in four-jet production:kT-factorization approach

In the present paper we discuss how to maximize the double-parton scattering (DPS) contribution in four-jet production by selecting kinematical cuts. Here both single-parton and double-parton scattering effects are calculated in the $k_T$-factorization approach, following our recent developments of relevant methods and tools. Several differential distributions are shown and discussed in the context of future searches for DPS effects, such as rapidity of jets, rapidity distance, and azimuthal correlations between jets. The dependences of the relative DPS amount is studied as function of those observables. The regions with an enhanced DPS contribution are identified. Future experimental explorations could extract more precise values of $\sigma_{eff}$ and its potential dependence on kinematical variables.

BFKL azimuthal imprints in inclusive three-jet production at 7 and 13 TeV

We propose the study of new observables in LHC inclusive events with three tagged jets, one in the forward direction, one in the backward direction and both well-separated in rapidity from the each other (Mueller–Navelet jets), together with a third jet tagged in central regions of rapidity. Since non-tagged associated mini-jet multiplicity is allowed, we argue that projecting the cross sections on azimuthal-angle components can provide several distinct tests of the BFKL dynamics. Realistic LHC kinematical cuts are introduced.

Long range correlation in Higgs boson plus two jets production at the LHC

We study Higgs boson plus two high energy jets production at the LHC in the kinematics where the two jets are well separated in rapidity. The partonic processes are dominated by the t-channel weak boson fusion (WBF) and gluon fusion (GF) contributions. We derive the associated QCD resummation formalism for the correlation analysis where the total transverse momentum q_\perp of the Higgs boson and two jets is small. Because of different color structures, the resummation results lead to distinguished behaviors: the WBF contribution peaks at relative low q_\perp while all GF channel contributions are strongly de-correlated and spread to a much wider q_\perp range. By applying a kinematic cut on q_\perp, one can effectively increase the WBF signal to the GF background by a significant factor. This greatly strengthens the ability to investigate the WBF channel in Higgs boson production and study the couplings of Higgs to electroweak bosons.

Four-jet production in single- and double-parton scattering within high-energy factorization

We perform a first study of 4-jet production in a complete high-energy factorization (HEF) framework. We include and discuss contributions from both single-parton scattering (SPS) and double-parton scattering (DPS). The calculations are performed for kinematical situations relevant for two experimental measurements (ATLAS and CMS) at the LHC. We compare our results to those reported by the ATLAS and CMS collaborations for different sets of kinematical cuts. The results of the HEF approach are compared with their counterparts for collinear factorization. For symmetric cuts the DPS HEF result is considerably smaller than the one obtained with collinear factorization. The mechanism leading to this difference is of kinematical nature. We conclude that an analysis of inclusive 4-jet production with asymmetric $p_T$-cuts below 50 GeV would be useful to enhance the DPS contribution relative to the SPS contribution. In contrast to the collinear approach, the HEF approach nicely describes the distribution of the $\Delta S$ variable, which involves all four jets and their angular correlations.

Specialized minimal PDFs for optimized LHC calculations.

We present a methodology for the construction of parton distribution functions (PDFs) designed to provide an accurate representation of PDF uncertainties for specific processes or classes of processes with a minimal number of PDF error sets: specialized minimal PDF sets, or SM-PDFs. We construct these SM-PDFs in such a way that sets corresponding to different input processes can be combined without losing information, specifically as regards their correlations, and that they are robust upon smooth variations of the kinematic cuts. The proposed strategy never discards information, so that the SM-PDF sets can be enlarged by the addition of new processes, until the prior PDF set is eventually recovered for a large enough set of processes. We illustrate the method by producing SM-PDFs tailored to Higgs, top-quark pair, and electroweak gauge boson physics, and we determine that, when the PDF4LHC15 combined set is used as the prior, around 11, 4, and 11 Hessian eigenvectors, respectively, are enough to fully describe the corresponding processes.

Detecting quark anomalous electroweak couplings at the LHC

We study the dimension-6 quark anomalous electroweak couplings in the formulation of linearly realized effective Lagrangian. We investigate the constraints on these anomalous couplings from the $pp \rightarrow W^+W^-$ process in detail at the LHC. With additional kinematic cuts, we find that the 14 TeV LHC can provide a test of anomalous couplings of $O(0.1-1)\,{\rm TeV}^{-2}$. The $pp \rightarrow ZZ/Z\gamma/\gamma\gamma$ processes can provide a good complement as they are sensitive to those anomalous couplings which do not affect the $pp \rightarrow W^+W^-$ process. Those processes that only contain anomalous triple vertices, like $p p \to W^* \to l \nu_l$ or $p p \to \gamma^* / Z^* \to l^+ l^-$, can improve the sensitivities to $O(0.01-0.1)\,{\rm TeV}^{-2}$. We also study the kinematic differences between different anomalous couplings and discuss the potential of the $\chi^2$-analysis to distinguish them. Finally, we discuss the detection ability of the possible future 100 TeV proton-proton collider(SPPC), and find that the detection sensitivity is improved by about one order of magnitude compared with the LHC.

Effects of kinematic cuts on net electric charge fluctuations

The effects of kinematic cuts on electric charge fluctuations in a gas of charged particles are discussed. We consider a very transparent example of an ideal pion gas with quantum statistics, which can be viewed as a multi-component gas of Boltzmann particles with different charges and masses. Cumulants of net-electric charge fluctuations $\chi_n^Q$ are calculated in a static and expanding medium with flow parameters adjusted to the experimental data. We show that the transverse momentum cut, $p_{t_\text{min}}\leq p_t\leq p_{t_\text{max}}$, weakens the effects of Bose statistics, i.e. contributions of effectively multi-charged states to higher order moments. Consequently, cuts in $p_t$ modify the experimentally measured cumulants and their ratios. We discuss the influence of kinematic cuts on the ratio of mean and variance of electric charge fluctuations in a hadron resonance gas, in the light of recent data of the STAR and PHENIX Collaborations. We find that the different momentum cuts of $p_{t_\text{min}}=0.2$~GeV (STAR) and $p_{t_\text{min}}=0.3$~GeV (PHENIX) are responsible for more than 30\% of the difference between these two data sets. We argue that the $p_t$ cuts imposed on charged particles will influence the normalized kurtosis {$\kappa_Q\sigma_Q^2 = \chi_4^Q/\chi_2^Q$} of the electric charge fluctuations. In particular, the reduction of $\kappa_Q\sigma_Q^2$ with increasing $p_{t_\text{min}}$ will lead to differences between PHENIX and STAR data of ${\cal O}(6\%)$ which currently are buried under large statistical and systematic errors. We furthermore introduce the relation between momentum cut-off and finite volume effects, which is of relevance for the comparison between experimental data and lattice QCD calculations.

Constraints on gauge-Higgs unification models at the LHC

We examine the possibility of observing the Kaluza–Klein (KK) gluons in gauge-Higgs unification models at the LHC with the energy [Formula: see text][Formula: see text]=[Formula: see text]14 TeV. We consider a benchmark model with the gauge symmetry SU(3)[Formula: see text]SU(3)W in five-dimensional spacetime, where SU(3)C is the gauge symmetry of the strong interaction and SU(3)W is that for the electroweak interaction and a Higgs doublet field. It is natural in general to introduce SU(3)C gauge symmetry in five-dimensional spacetime as well as SU(3)W gauge symmetry in gauge-Higgs unification (GHU) models. Since the fifth dimension is compactified to [Formula: see text] orbifold, there are KK modes of gluons in low-energy effective theory in four-dimensional spacetime. We investigate the resonance contribution of the first KK gluon to dijet invariant mass distribution at the LHC, and provide signal-to-noise ratios in various cases of KK gluon masses and kinematical cuts. Although the results are given in a specific benchmark model, we discuss their application to general GHU models with KK gluons. GHU models can be verified or constrained through the physics of the strong interaction, though they are proposed to solve the naturalness problem in electroweak symmetry breaking.

Nucleon-decay-like signatures of hylogenesis

We consider nucleon-decay-like signatures of the hylogenesis, a variant of the antibaryonic dark matter model. For the interaction between visible and dark matter sectors through the neutron portal, we calculate the rates of dark matter scatterings off neutron which mimic neutron-decay processes $n\to \nu\gamma$ and $n\to \nu e^+ e^-$ with richer kinematics. We obtain bounds on the model parameters from nonobservation of the neutron decays by applying the kinematical cuts adopted in the experimental analyses. The bounds are generally (much) weaker than those coming from the recently performed study of events with a single jet of high transverse momentum and missing energy observed at the LHC. Then we suggest several new nucleon-decay like processes with two mesons in the final state and estimate (accounting for the LHC constraints) the lower limits on the nucleon lifetime with respect to these channels. The obtained values appear to be promising for probing the antibaryonic dark matter at future underground experiments like HyperK and DUNE.

Search for Excited Spin-3/2 Neutrinos at LHeC

We study the potential of the nextepcollider, namely, LHeC, with two optionss=1.3 TeV ands=1.98 TeV, to search for excited spin-1/2 and spin-3/2 neutrinos. We calculate the single production cross-section of excited spin-1/2 and spin-3/2 neutrinos according to their effective currents describing their interactions between gauge bosons and SM leptons. We choose theν⋆→eWdecay mode of excited neutrinos andW→jjdecay mode ofW-boson for the analysis. We put some kinematical cuts for the final state detectable particles and plot the invariant mass distributions for signal and the corresponding backgrounds. In order to obtain accessible limits for excited neutrino couplings, we show thef-f′andciV-ciAcontour plots for excited spin-1/2 and excited spin-3/2 neutrinos, respectively.

Double Higgs boson production and decay in Randall-Sundrum model at hadron colliders

We investigate the double Higgs production and decay at the $14~ {\rm TeV}$ LHC and $33~ {\rm TeV}$ HE-LHC in both the standard model and Randall-Sundrum (RS) model. In our calculation we consider reasonably only the contribution of the lightest two Kaluza-Klein (KK) gravitons. We present the integrated cross sections and some kinematic distributions in both models. Our results show that the RS effect in the vicinities of $M_{HH} \sim M_{1}$, $M_{2}$ (the masses of the lightest two KK gravitons) or in the central Higgs rapidity region is quite significant, and can be extracted from the heavy SM background by imposing proper kinematic cuts on final particles. We also study the dependence of the cross section on the RS model parameters, the first KK graviton mass $M_1$ and the effective coupling $c_0$, and find that the RS effect is reduced obviously with the increment of $M_1$ or decrement of $c_0$.