A
bstract
In the general Two-Higgs Doublet Model it has been shown that the Higgs potential can be expressed in terms of gauge-independent quantities that transform covariantly under unitary mixing ...of the doublets. In particular, stability, electroweak symmetry breaking, and CP symmetry can be understood in a concise way, avoiding unphysical gauge degrees of freedom. We complete this program and show how all the masses, the trilinear and quartic scalar interactions, the gauge-boson-Higgs interactions, as well as the Yukawa couplings in the general THDM can be expressed in a gauge-invariant way.
We present a novel subtraction method to remove the soft and collinear divergences at next-to-leading order for processes involving an arbitrary number of fragmentation functions, where this method ...acts directly in the hadronic centre-of-mass frame. We provide the analytical formulae of the subtraction terms in the general case where all the final state partons fragment to hadrons and for the two special cases when one of the partons of the final state does not fragment, i.e. it is a photon or involved in a jet.
We provide a comprehensive comparison of
W
±
/
Z
vector boson production data in pPb and PbPb collisions at the LHC with predictions obtained using the nCTEQ15 PDFs. We identify the measurements ...which have the largest potential impact on the PDFs, and estimate the effect of including these data using a Bayesian reweighting method. We find this data set can provide information as regards both the nuclear corrections and the heavy flavor (strange quark) PDF components. As for the proton, the parton flavor determination/separation is dependent on nuclear corrections (from heavy target DIS, for example), this information can also help improve the proton PDFs.
We study inclusive
B
-meson production in
pp
collisions at the LHC and compare experimental data with predictions of the general-mass variable-flavour-number scheme at next-to-leading order of ...perturbative QCD. We find almost perfect agreement provided that the factorization scale parameters and the parton distribution functions are chosen appropriately.
The extraction of the strange quark parton distribution function (PDF) poses a long-standing puzzle. Measurements from neutrino-nucleus deep inelastic scattering (DIS) experiments suggest the strange ...quark is suppressed compared to the light sea quarks, while recent studies of
W
±
/
Z
boson production at the LHC imply a larger strange component at small
x
values. As the parton flavor determination in the proton depends on nuclear corrections, e.g. from heavy-target DIS, LHC heavy ion measurements can provide a distinct perspective to help clarify this situation. In this investigation we extend the nCTEQ15 nPDFs to study the impact of the LHC proton-lead
W
±
/
Z
production data on both the flavor differentiation and nuclear corrections. This complementary data set provides new insights on both the LHC
W
±
/
Z
proton analyses and the neutrino-nucleus DIS data. We identify these new nPDFs as
nCTEQ15WZ
. Our calculations are performed using a new implementation of the nCTEQ code (
nCTEQ++
) based on C++ which enables us to easily interface to external programs such as HOPPET, APPLgrid and MCFM. Our results indicate that, as suggested by the proton data, the small
x
nuclear strange sea appears larger than previously expected, even when the normalization of the
W
±
/
Z
data is accommodated in the fit. Extending the nCTEQ15 analysis to include LHC
W
±
/
Z
data represents an important step as we advance toward the next generation of nPDFs.
We present a review of the state of the art of our understanding of the intrinsic charm and bottom content of the nucleon. We discuss theoretical calculations, constraints from global analyses, and ...collider observables sensitive to the intrinsic heavy quark distributions. A particular emphasis is put on the potential of a high energy and high luminosity fixed target experiment using the LHC beams (AFTER@LHC) to search for intrinsic charm.
The impact of recent measurements of heavy-flavour production in deep inelastic
ep
scattering and in
pp
collisions on parton distribution functions is studied in a QCD analysis in the fixed-flavour ...number scheme at next-to-leading order. Differential cross sections of charm- and beauty-hadron production measured by LHCb are used together with inclusive and heavy-flavour production cross sections in deep inelastic scattering at HERA. The heavy-flavour data of the LHCb experiment impose additional constraints on the gluon and the sea-quark distributions at low partonic fractions
x
of the proton momentum, down to
x
∼
5
×
10
-
6
. This kinematic range is currently not covered by other experimental data in perturbative QCD fits.
We review the context, the motivations and the expected performances of a comprehensive and ambitious fixed-target programme using the multi-TeV proton and ion LHC beams. We also provide a detailed ...account of the different possible technical implementations ranging from an internal wire target to a full dedicated beam line extracted with a bent crystal. The possibilities offered by the use of the ALICE and LHCb detectors in the fixed-target mode are also reviewed.
We present a detailed discussion of the collinear subtraction terms needed to establish a massive variable-flavor-number scheme for the one-particle inclusive production of heavy quarks in hadronic ...collisions. The subtraction terms are computed by convoluting appropriate partonic cross sections with perturbative parton distribution and fragmentation functions relying on the method of mass factorization. We find (with one minor exception) complete agreement with the subtraction terms obtained in a previous publication by comparing the zero-mass limit of a fixed-order calculation with the genuine massless results in the \({\overline{\mathrm{MS}}}\) scheme. This presentation will be useful for extending the massive variable-flavor-number scheme to other processes.