Search

This article introduces {\tt AAK24}, a Next-to-Leading Order (NLO) QCD analysis of polarized data from both polarized Deep Inelastic Scattering (DIS) and Semi-Inclusive Deep Inelastic Scattering (SIDIS) experiments on the nucleon. The {\tt AAK24} QCD analysis incorporates SU(2) and SU(3) symmetry breaking, specifically $\delta \bar{u} \neq \delta \bar{d} \neq \delta \bar{s}$, while assuming $\delta \bar{s}$ and $\delta s$ are equal. Emphasizing the significance of the semi-inclusive data, the study explores the determination of polarized sea quark distributions. Recent experimental data from {\tt JLAB17}, {\tt COMPASS16}, and {\tt COMPASS17}, including the $A_2$ asymmetry measurements along with SIDIS observables, are thoroughly examined for their impact on the central values of polarized PDFs, their uncertainties, and overall fit quality. Additionally, we include the nonperturbative target mass corrections (TMC) as well as higher-twist terms (HT) which are particularly important. In this work, the uncertainties are quantified using the standard Hessian method. The main results and findings of the {\tt AAK24} QCD analysis show overall good agreement with the analyzed experimental data, aligning well with other polarized PDF determinations, particularly {\tt DSSV14}, {\tt LSS10}, {\tt JAM17}, and {\tt AKS14}, all considering SU(2) and SU(3) symmetry breaking., Comment: 21 pages, 13 figures , 5 tables

In this study, we revisit the extraction of parton-to-$K^0_S$ hadron fragmentation functions, named FF24-$K^0_S$, focusing on both next-to-leading-order and next-to-next-to-leading-order accuracy in perturbative QCD. Our approach involves the analysis of single inclusive electron-positron annihilation (SIA) data. The two key improvements are, on the one hand, the incorporation of the latest experimental data from the BESIII experiment and, on the other hand, the adoption of Neural Networks in the fitting procedure. To address experimental uncertainties, the Monte Carlo method is employed. Our investigation also explores the impact of hadron mass corrections on the description of SIA data, spanning a broad kinematic regime with a particular emphasis on the range of small $z$ values. The theory prediction for $K^0_S$ production at both NLO and NNLO accuracy exhibits good agreement with experimental data within their respective uncertainties., Comment: 14 pages, 8 figures, Accepted for publication in Physical Review D

In this study, we performed calculations and analyses of the structure functions of polarized nucleons and light nuclei, specifically $^3$He and $^3$H, using second-order Feynman diagrams. Our investigation focused on two main aspects: Firstly, we examined the symmetry properties of polarized light sea quarks. Secondly, we conducted a detailed investigation into the impacts of symmetry breaking on the structure functions of both nucleons and nuclei. To achieve this, we utilized the existing polarized Parton Distribution Functions (polarized PDFs) available in the literature. These PDFs were used to calculate and compare the polarized structure functions $g_1$ and $g_2$ of the nuclei. Additionally, we examined and analyzed the Bjorken and Efremov-Leader-Teryaev sum rules by utilizing the moments of the polarized structure functions. The Lorentz color force components, namely $F_E^{y,n}$ and $F_B^{y,n}$, are determined using the twist-2, twist-3, and twist-4 matrix elements. When symmetry breaking is applied, it is observed that they have similar magnitudes but opposite signs. Our theoretical predictions for the polarized structure functions of nucleons and light nuclei, taking into account the symmetry breaking of light sea quarks, exhibit better agreement with experimental data., Comment: 13 pages, 12 figures, 3 tables

In this paper, we use the charged-current Higgs boson production process at future electron-proton colliders, $e^-p \to H j \nu_e$, with the subsequent decay of the Higgs boson into a $b\bar{b}$ pair, to probe the Standard Model effective field theory with dimension-six operators involving the Higgs boson and the bottom quark. The study is performed for two proposed future high-energy electron-proton colliders, the Large Hadron Electron Collider (LHeC) and the Future Circular Collider (FCC-he) at the center-of-mass energies of 1.3 TeV and 3.46 TeV, respectively. Constraints on the CP-even and CP-odd $Hb\bar{b}$ couplings are derived by analyzing the simulated signal and background samples. A realistic detector simulation is performed and a multivariate technique using the gradient Boosted Decision Trees algorithm is employed to discriminate the signal from background. Expected limits are obtained at $95\%$ Confidence Level for the LHeC and FCC-he assuming the integrated luminosities of 1, 2 and 10 ab$^{-1}$. We find that using 1 ab$^{-1}$ of data, the CP-even and CP-odd $Hb\bar{b}$ couplings can be constrained with accuracies of the order of $10^{-3}$ and $10^{-2}$, respectively, and a significant region of the unprobed parameter space becomes accessible., Comment: 20 pages, 8 figures

In this work, we present a new global QCD analyses, referred to as PKHFF.23, for charged pion, kaon, and unidentified light hadrons. We utilize a Neural Network to fit the high-energy lepton-lepton and lepton-hadron scattering data, enabling us to determine parton-to-hadron fragmentation functions (FFs) at next-to-leading-order (NLO) accuracy. The analyses include all available single-inclusive $e^+e^-$ annihilation (SIA) and semi-inclusive deep-inelastic scattering (SIDIS) data from the COMPASS Collaboration for charged pions, kaons, and unidentified light hadrons. Taking into account the most recent nuclear parton distribution functions (nuclear PDFs) available in the literature, we evaluate the effect of nuclear corrections on the determination of light hadrons FFs. The Neural Network parametrization, enriched with the Monte Carlo methodology for uncertainty estimations, is employed for all sources of experimental uncertainties and the proton PDFs. Our results indicate that incorporating nuclear corrections has a marginal impact on the central values of FFs and their corresponding uncertainty bands. The inclusion of such corrections does not significantly affect the fit quality of the data as well. The study suggests that while nuclear corrections are a consideration, their impact in such QCD analysis is limited., Comment: 22 pages, 9 figures and 3 tables

We present an updated set of {\tt SKMHS} diffractive parton distribution functions (PDFs). In addition to the diffractive deep-inelastic scattering (diffractive DIS) data sets, the recent diffractive dijet cross sections measurements by the H1 experiment from the HERA collider are added to the data sample. The new set of diffractive PDFs, entitled {\tt SKMHS23} and {\tt SKMHS23-dijet}, are presented at next-to-leading order (NLO) and next-to-next-to-leading order (NNLO) accuracy in perturbative QCD. Since the gluons directly contribute to jet production through the boson-gluon fusion process, the data on diffractive dijet production in inclusive DIS help to constrain the gluon density, allowing for the determination of both the quark and gluon densities with better accuracy. The NLO and NNLO theory predictions calculated using both {\tt SKMHS23} and {\tt SKMHS23-dijet} are compared to the analyzed data showing excellent agreements. The effect arising from the inclusion of diffractive dijet data and higher order QCD corrections on the extracted diffractive PDFs and data/theory agreements are clearly examined and discussed., Comment: 19 pages, 11 figures and 5 tables

We present {\tt SKMHS22}, a new set of diffractive parton distribution functions (PDFs) and their uncertainties at next-to-leading-order accuracy in perturbative QCD within the {\tt xFitter} framework. We describe all available diffractive DIS data sets from HERA and the most recent high-precision H1/ZEUS combined measurements considering three different scenarios. First, we extract the diffractive PDFs considering the standard twist-2 contribution. Then, we include the twist-4 correction from the longitudinal virtual photons. Finally, the contribution of subleading Reggeon exchange to the structure-function $F_2^D$ is also examined. For the contribution of heavy flavors, we utilize the Thorne-Roberts general mass variable number scheme. We show that for those corrections, in particular, the twist-4 contribution allows to include the high-$\beta$ region and leads to a better description of the diffractive DIS data sets. We find that the inclusion of the subleading Reggeon exchange significantly improves the description of the diffractive DIS cross-section measurements. The resulting sets are in good agreement with all diffractive DIS data analyzed, which cover a wider kinematical range than in previous fits. The {\tt SKMHS22} diffractive PDFs sets presented in this work are available via the {\tt LHAPDF} interface. We also make suggestions for future research in this area.

In this paper, we present a QCD analysis to extract the Fragmentation Functions (FFs) of unidentified light charged hadron entitled as SHK22.h from high-energy lepton-lepton annihilation and lepton-hadron scattering data sets. This analysis includes the data from all available single inclusive electron-positron annihilation (SIA) processes and semi-inclusive deep-inelastic scattering (SIDIS) measurements for the unidentified light charged hadron productions. The SIDIS data which has been measured by the COMPASS experiment could allow the flavor dependence of the FFs to be well constrained. We exploit the analytic derivative of the Neural Network (NN) for fitting of FFs at next-to-leading-order (NLO) accuracy in the perturbative QCD (pQCD). The Monte Carlo method is implied for all sources of experimental uncertainties and the Parton distribution functions (PDFs) as well. Very good agreements are achieved between the SHK22.h FFs set and the most recent QCD fits available in literature, namely JAM20 and NNFF1.1h. In addition, we discuss the impact arising from the inclusion of SIDIS data on the extracted light-charged hadron FFs. The global QCD resulting at NLO for charged hadron FFs provides valuable insights for applications in present and future high-energy measurement of charged hadron final state processes., Comment: 18 pages, 8 figures, and 1 table

We present a determination of fragmentation functions (FFs) for the octet baryon $\Xi ^-/\bar{\Xi}^+$ from data for single inclusive electron-positron annihilation. Our parametrization in this QCD analysis is provided in terms of a Neural Network (NN). We determine fragmentation functions for $\Xi ^-/\bar{\Xi}^+$ at next-to-leading order and for the first time at next-to-next-to-leading order in perturbative QCD. We discuss the improvement of higher-order QCD corrections, the quality of fit, and the comparison of our theoretical results with the fitted datasets. As an application of our new set of fragmentation functions, named SHKS22, we present predictions for $\Xi ^- / \bar{\Xi}^+$ baryon production in proton-proton collisions at the LHC experiments., Comment: 14 pages, 6 figures, and 2 tables

We present the first open-source analysis of fragmentation functions (FFs) of charged pions (entitled IPM-xFitter) computed at next-to-leading order (NLO) and next-to-next-to-leading order (NNLO) accuracy in perturbative QCD using the xFitter framework. This study incorporates a comprehensive and up-to-date set of pion production data from single-inclusive annihilation (SIA) processes, as well as the most recent measurements of inclusive cross-sections of single pion by the BELLE collaboration. The determination of pion FFs along with their theoretical uncertainties is performed in the Zero-Mass Variable-Flavor Number Scheme (ZM-VFNS). We also present comparisons of our FFs set with recent fits from the literature. The resulting NLO and NNLO pion FFs provide valuable insights for applications in present and future high-energy analysis of pion final state processes., Comment: 20 pages, 10 figures, 2 tables

In this paper, we study the triple top quark production at the future high-energy proton-proton colliders to probe the four-fermion interactions involving three top quarks. We employ the Standard Model Effective Field Theory (SMEFT) to find the upper limits at $95\%$ CL on the Wilson coefficients of these kinds of four-fermion operators. We consider a detailed analysis with a unique signal signature of two same-sign leptons. A full simulation chain includes all the relevant backgrounds, realistic detector simulations and a cut-based technique are taken into account. This study is presented for the HE-LHC working at the center of mass energy of 27 TeV with 15~ab$^{-1}$ and FCC-hh working at the center of mass energy of 100 TeV with 30~ab$^{-1}$. We show that the future high-energy proton-proton colliders could reach an impressive sensitivity to four-fermion contact interactions involving three top quarks., Comment: 9 pages, 5 figures

In this article we obtain a new set of nuclear parton distribution functions (nuclear PDFs) at next-to-leading order and next-to-next-to-leading order accuracy in perturbative QCD. The common nuclear deep-inelastic scattering (DIS) data analyzed in our study are complemented by the available charged-current neutrino DIS data with nuclear targets and data from Drell-Yan cross-section measurements for several nuclear targets. In addition, the most recent DIS data from the Jefferson Lab CLAS and Hall C experiments are also added to our data sample. For these specific datasets, we consider the impact of target mass corrections and higher twist effects which are expected to be important in the region of large $x$ and intermediate-to-low $Q^2$. Our analysis is based on a publicly available open-source tool {\tt APFEL}, which has been modified to be applicable for our analysis of nuclear PDFs. Heavy quark contributions to nuclear DIS are considered within the framework of the {\tt FONLL} general-mass variable-flavor-number scheme. The most recent {\tt CT18} PDFs are used as baseline proton PDFs. The uncertainties of nuclear PDFs are determined using the standard Hessian approach. The results of our global QCD analysis are compared with existing nuclear PDF sets and with the fitted cross-sections, for which our set of nuclear PDFs provides a very good description., Comment: 34 Pages 9 Tables 19 Figs

The current paper presents a determination of $K^0_S$ and $\Lambda/\bar{\Lambda}$ fragmentation functions (FFs) from QCD analysis of single-inclusive electron-positron annihilation process (SIA). Our FFs determinations are performed at next-to-leading order (NLO), and for the first time, at next-to-next-to-leading order (NNLO) accuracy in perturbative Quantum Chromodynamics (pQCD) which is designated as {\tt SAK20} FFs. Each of these FFs is accompanied by their uncertainties which are determined using the `Hessian' method. Considering the hadron mass corrections, we clearly investigate the reliability of our results upon the inclusion of higher-order QCD correction. We provide comparisons of {\tt SAK20} FFs set with the available analysis from another group, finding in general a reasonable agreement, and also considerable differences. In order to judge the fit quality, our theoretical predictions are compared with the analyzed SIA datasets. {\tt SAK20} FFs at NLO and NNLO accuracy along with their uncertainties are made available in the standard {\tt LHAPDF} format in order to use for predictions of present and future measurements in high-energy collisions such as LHC and RHIC., Comment: 25 pages, 16 Figures, 4 Tables, Accepted for Publication in Physical Review D

Achieving the highest possible precision for theoretical predictions at the present and future high-energy lepton and hadron colliders requires a precise determination of fragmentation functions (FFs) of light and heavy charged hadrons from a global QCD analysis with great accuracy. We describe a simultaneous determination of unpolarized FFs of charged pions, charged kaons and protons/antiprotons from single-inclusive hadron production in electron-positron annihilation (SIA) data at next-to-leading order and next-to-next-to-leading order accuracy in perturbative QCD. A new set of FFs, called {\tt SGKS20}, is presented. We include data for identified light charged hadrons ($\pi^\pm, K^\pm$ and $p/\bar{p}$) as well as for unidentified light charged hadrons, $h^\pm$ and show that these data have a significant impact on both size and uncertainties of the fragmentation functions. We examine the inclusion of higher-order perturbative QCD corrections and finite-mass effects. We compare the new {\tt SGKS20} FFs with other recent FFs available in the literature and find in general reasonable agreement, but also important differences for some parton species. We show that theoretical predictions obtained from our new FFs are in very good agreement with the analyzed SIA data, especially at small values of $z$. The {\tt SGKS20} FF sets presented in this work are available via the {\tt LHAPDF} interface., Comment: 19 pages, 14 Figures and 4 Tables; Accepted for publication in Physical Review D

Our main aim in this paper is to present detailed studies to probe the top quark flavor changing neutral current (FCNC) interactions at $tqg$, $tq\gamma$, $tqH$ and $tqZ (\sigma^{\mu \nu}, \gamma_{\mu})$ vertices in the triple-top signal $p p \to t \bar t t \, (\bar t t \bar t)$ at the high energy proposal of Large Hadron Collider (HE-LHC) and future circular hadron-hadron collider (FCC-hh). To this end, we investigate the production of three top quarks which arises from the FCNC couplings taken into account the fast simulation at $\sqrt{s} = 27$ TeV of HE-LHC and 100 TeV of FCC-hh considering the integrated luminosities of 10, 15 and 20 ab$^{-1}$. All the relevant backgrounds are considered in a cut based analysis to obtain the limits on the anomalous couplings and the corresponding branching ratios. The obtained exclusion limits on the coupling strengths and the branching ratios are summarized and compared in details with the results in the literature, namely the most recent direct LHC experimental limits and HL-LHC projections as well. We show that, for higher energy phase of LHC, a dedicated search for the top quark FCNC couplings can achieve much better sensitivities to the triple-top signal than other top quark production scenarios. We found that the limits for the branching ratios of $tqg$ and $tqH$ transitions could reach an impressive sensitivity and the obtained 95\% CL limits are at least three orders of magnitude better than the current LHC experimental results as well as the existing projections of HL-LHC., Comment: 18 pages, 8 figures and 6 Tables; Final version accepted for publication in Nuclear Physics B

Our main aim in this paper is to constrain the effective field theory describing the top quark couplings through the $e^{-} e^{+} \rightarrow t \bar{t}+$jet process. The analysis is carried out considering two different center-of-mass energies of 500 and 3000 GeV including a realistic simulation of the detector response and the main sources of background processes. The expected limits at 95\% CL are derived on the new physics couplings such as $t \bar t \gamma$, $t \bar t Z$, and $t \bar t g$ for each benchmark scenario using the dileptonic $t \bar{t}$ final state. We show that the 95\% CL limits on dimensionless Wilson coefficients $\bar{c}_i$ considered in this analysis could be probed down to $10^{-4}$., Comment: 20 pages, 2 table, 7 figures, Accepted for publication in Physics Letters B

The current analysis aims to present the results of a QCD analysis of diffractive parton distribution functions (diffractive PDFs) at next-to-leading order (NLO) accuracy in perturbative QCD. In this new determination of diffractive PDFs, we use all available and up-to-date diffractive deep inelastic scattering (diffractive DIS) datasets from H1 and ZEUS Collaborations at HERA including the most recent H1/ZEUS combined measurements. In this analysis, we consider the heavy quark contributions to the diffractive DIS in the so-called framework of {\tt FONLL} general mass variable flavor number scheme (GM-VFNS). The uncertainties on the diffractive PDFs are calculated using the standard "Hessian error propagation" which served to provide a more realistic estimate of the uncertainties. This analysis are enriched, for the first time, by including the nonperturbative higher twist (HT) effects in the calculation of diffractive DIS cross sections which are particularly important at large-$x$ and low $Q^{2}$ regions. Then, the stability and reliability of the extracted diffractive PDFs are investigated upon inclusion of HT effects. We discuss the novel aspects of the approach used in this QCD fit, namely, optimized and flexible parameterizations of diffractive PDFs, the inclusion of HT effects, and considering the recent H1/ZEUS combined dataset. Finally, we present the extracted diffractive PDFs with and without the presence of HT effects, and discuss the fit quality and the stability upon variations of the kinematic cuts and the fitted datasets. We show that the inclusion of HT effects in diffractive DIS can improve the description of the data which leads, in general, to a very good agreement between data and theory predictions., Comment: 19 pages, 15 figures, 3 Tables

The main aim of this paper is a new determination of transverse momentum dependence of unpolarized fragmentation function (TMD FFs) in single inclusive hadron production in electron-positron annihilation (SIA) process. Motivated by the need for a reliable and consistent determination of TMD FFs, we use the most recent TMD production cross sections of charged pions ($\pi^\pm$), kaons ($K^\pm$) and protons/antiprotons ($p/\bar{p}$) measured in inclusive $e^+e^-$ collisions by Belle Collaboration. These datasets are the first transverse momentum dependence of identified light charged hadron measurements SIA process. In this analysis, referred to as {\tt SK19 TMD FFs}, the common Gaussian distribution is used for the $P_{hT}$ dependent of the cross section. The uncertainties in the extraction of {\tt SK19 TMD FFs} are estimated using the standard "Hessian" technique. We study the quality of the TMD FFs determined in this analysis by comparing with the available recent Belle cross sections measurement. For all hadron species, we found a very good agreement between this particular set of experimental data and the corresponding theory calculations over a relatively wide range of transverse momentum $P_{hT}$. As a result of this study, suggestions are identified for possible future research considering the theory improvements and other available experimental observables., Comment: 11 pages, 5 figures and 2 tables, Accepted for Publication in Physical Review D

The main aim of this paper is to present new sets of non-perturbative fragmentation functions (FFs) for $D^0$ and $D^+$ mesons at next-to-leading (NLO) and, for the first time, at next-to-next-to-leading order (NNLO) in the $\overline{\mathrm{MS}}$ factorization scheme with five massless quark flavors. This new determination of FFs is based on the QCD fit to the {\tt OPAL} experimental data for hadron production in the electron-positron single-inclusive annihilation (SIA). We discuss in detail the novel aspects of the methodology used in our analysis and the validity of obtained FFs by comparing with previous works in literature which have been carried out up to NLO accuracy. We will also incorporate the effect of charmed meson mass corrections into our QCD analysis and discuss the improvements upon inclusion of these effects. The uncertainties in the extracted FFs as well as in the corresponding observables are estimated using the "Hessian" approach. For a typical application, we use our new FFs to make theoretical predictions for the energy distributions of charmed mesons inclusively produced through the decay of unpolarized top quarks, to be measured at the CERN LHC. As a result of this analysis, suggestions are discussed for possible future studies on the current topic to consider any theory improvements and other available experimental observables., Comment: 12 pages, 6 figures, 6 Tables, Accepted for Publication in European Physical Journal C

We present nonperturbative fragmentation functions (FFs) for bottom-flavored ($B$) hadrons both at next-to-leading (NLO) and, for the first time, at next-to-next-to-leading order (NNLO) in the $\overline{\mathrm{MS}}$ factorization scheme with five massless quark flavors. They are determined by fitting all available experimental data of inclusive single $B$-hadron production in $e^+e^-$ annihilation, from the ALEPH, DELPHI, and OPAL Collaborations at CERN LEP1 and the SLD Collaboration at SLAC SLC. The uncertainties in these FFs as well as in the corresponding observables are estimated using the Hessian approach. We perform comparisons with available NLO sets of $B$-hadron FFs. We apply our new FFs to generate theoretical predictions for the energy distribution of $B$ hadrons produced through the decay of unpolarized or polarized top quarks, to be measured at the CERN LHC., Comment: Accepted by Physical Review D

The goal of this study is to determine a set of diffractive parton distribution function (diffractive PDFs) from a QCD analysis of all available and up-to-date diffractive deep inelastic scattering (diffractive DIS) data sets from HERA $ep$ collider, including the most recent H1 and ZUES combined inclusive diffractive cross section measurements. This extraction of diffractive PDFs, referred to as {\tt HK19-DPDF}, is performed at next-to-leading (NLO) and next-to-next-to-leading (NNLO) in perturbative QCD. This new determination of diffractive PDFs is based on the fracture functions methodology, a QCD framework designed to provide a statistically sound representation of diffractive DIS processes. Heavy quark contributions to the diffractive DIS are considered within the framework of the FONLL general mass variable flavor number scheme (GM-VFNS) and the "Hessian approach" is used to determine the uncertainties of diffractive PDFs. We discuss the novel aspects of the approach used in the present analysis, namely an optimized and flexible parametrization of the diffractive PDFs as well as a strategy based on the fully factorization theorem for diffractive hard processes. We then present the diffractive PDFs, and discuss the fit quality and the stability upon variations of the kinematic cuts and the fitted data sets. We find that the systematic inclusion of higher-order QCD corrections could improves the description of the data. We compare the extracted sets of diffractive PDFs based on the fracture functions approach to other recent sets of diffractive PDFs, finding in general very good agreements., Comment: 21 pages, 9 figures and 7 Tables

In this paper a new comprehensive analysis of parton-to-pion fragmentation functions (FFs) is performed for the first time by including all experimental data sets on single inclusive pion as well as unidentified light charged hadron production in electron-positron ($e^+e^-$) annihilation. We determine the pion FFs along with their uncertainties using the standard "Hessian" technique at next-to-leading order (NLO) and next-to-next-to leading order (NNLO) in perturabative QCD. It is shown that the determination of pion FFs using simultaneously the data sets from pion and unidentified light charged hadron productions leads to the reduction of all pion FFs uncertainties especially for the case of strange quark and gluon FFs by significant factors. In this study, we have quantified the constraints that these data sets could impose on the extracted pion FFs. Our results also illustrate the significant improvement in the precision of FFs fits achievable by inclusion of higher order corrections. The improvements on both FFs uncertainties as well as fit quality have been clearly discussed., Comment: 34 pages, 9 figures and 3 tables

In this paper, we present an extraction of the contribution from the "{\it residual}" light charged hadrons to the inclusive unidentified light charged hadron fragmentation functions (FFs) at next-to-leading (NLO) and, for the first time, at next-to-next-to-leading order (NNLO) accuracy in perturbative QCD. Considering the contributions from charged pion, kaon and (anti)proton FFs from recent {\tt NNFF1.0} analysis of charged hadron FFs, we determine the small but efficient {\it residual} charged hadron FFs from QCD analysis of all available single inclusive unidentified charged hadron data sets in electron-positron ($e^+ e^-$) annihilations. The zero-mass variable flavor number scheme (ZM-VFNS) has been applied to account the heavy flavor contributions. The obtained optimum set of {\it residual} charged hadron FFs is accompanied by the well-known Hessian technique to assess the uncertainties in the extraction of these new sets of FFs. It is shown that the {\it residual} contributions of charged hadron FFs have very important impact on the inclusive charged hadron FFs and substantially on the quality and the reliability of the QCD fit. Furthermore, this study shows that the {\it residual} contributions become also sizable for the case of heavy quark FFs as well as for the $c$- and $b$-tagged cross sections., Comment: 29 pages, 8 Tables and 7 figures, Accepted for publication in European Physical Journal A

In this paper, we present ${\tt SGK18}$ FFs, a first global QCD analysis of parton-to-{\it unidentified} charged hadrons fragmentation functions (FFs) at next-to-next-to-leading order (NNLO) accuracy in perturbative QCD. This analysis is based on single-inclusive charged hadron production in electron-positron ($e^-e^+$) annihilation. The uncertainties in the extraction of ${\tt SGK18}$ FFs as well as the corresponding observables are estimated using the "Hessian" technique. We study the quality of the {\tt SGK18} FFs determined in this analysis by comparing with the recent results in literature. We also show how {\tt SGK18} FFs results describe the available data for single-inclusive unidentified charged hadron production in $e^-e^+$ annihilation. We demonstrate that the theoretical uncertainties due to the variation of the renormalization and factorization scales improve when NNLO QCD corrections are considered. We find that the resulting {\tt SGK18} FFs are in good agreement with all data analyzed and the inclusion of NNLO corrections tends to improve the data description with somewhat smaller uncertainty., Comment: 17 pages, 6 figures and 3 Tables

We perform a search for beyond the standard model dimension-six operators relevant to the Higgs boson at the Large Hadron Electron Collider (LHeC) and the Future Circular Hadron Electron Collider (FCC-he). With a large amount of data (few ab$^{-1}$) and collisions at TeV scale, both LHeC and FCC-he provide excellent opportunities to search for the BSM effects. The study is done through the process $e^-p \to h j \nu_e$ where the Higgs boson decays into a pair of $b \bar{b}$ and we consider the main sources of background processes including a realistic simulation of detector effects. For the FCC-he case, in some signal scenarios to obtain an efficient event reconstruction and to have a good background rejection, jet substructure techniques are employed to reconstruct the boosted Higgs boson in the final state. In order to assess the sensitivity to the dimension-six operators, a shape analysis on the differential cross sections is performed. Stringent bounds are found on the Wilson coefficients of dimension-six operators with the integrated luminosities of 1 ab$^{-1}$ and 10 ab$^{-1}$ which in some cases show improvements with respect to the high-luminosity LHC results., Comment: 22 pages,7 figures,5 tables

In this paper, we examine the sensitivity of the three-top quark production at the LHC to the top quark flavor-changing neutral currents (FCNC) as well as the sensitivity of the four-top production to the strong and weak dipole moments of the top quark. Upper limits at $95\%$ CL on the branching fractions of $\mathcal{B}(t\rightarrow qX)$, where $X = g, Z, \gamma, H$ and $q=u,c$, are set by performing an analysis on three-top events in the same-sign dilepton channel. We consider the main sources of the background processes and a realistic detector simulation is performed at the center-of-mass energy of 14 TeV. In the second part of this work, based on the recent upper limits which have been set on the four-top quark cross section by the ATLAS and CMS collaborations from 13 TeV data, we constrain the top quark strong and weak dipole moments. The bounds on the top quark dipole moments are presented using the future LHC prospects for four-top quark cross section measurement., Comment: 24 Pages, 3 Figures and 5 Tables, Published in Physical Review D

We present {\tt GKG18-DPDFs}, a next-to-leading order (NLO) QCD analysis of diffractive parton distribution functions (diffractive PDFs) and their uncertainties. This is the first global set of diffractive PDFs determined within the {\tt xFitter} framework. This analysis is motivated by all available and most up-to-date data on inclusive diffractive deep inelastic scattering (diffractive DIS). Heavy quark contributions are considered within the framework of the Thorne-Roberts (TR) general mass variable flavor number scheme (GM-VFNS). We form a mutually consistent set of diffractive PDFs due to the inclusion of high-precision data from H1/ZEUS combined inclusive diffractive cross sections measurements. We study the impact of the H1/ZEUS combined data by producing a variety of determinations based on reduced data sets. We find that these data sets have a significant impact on the diffractive PDFs with some substantial reductions in uncertainties. The predictions based on the extracted diffractive PDFs are compared to the analyzed diffractive DIS data and with other determinations of the diffractive PDFs., Comment: 36 pages, 14 Figures and 4 Tables, version to appear in European Physical Journal C

In this paper, we present {\tt SMKA18} analysis which is a first attempt to extract the set of next-to-next-leading-order (NNLO) spin-dependent parton distribution functions (spin-dependent PDFs) and their uncertainties determined through the Laplace transform technique and Jacobi polynomial approach. Using the Laplace transformations, we present an analytical solution for the spin-dependent Dokshitzer-Gribov-Lipatov-Altarelli-Parisi evolution equations at NNLO approximation. The results are extracted using a wide range of proton $g_1^{p}(x, Q^2)$, neutron $g_1^{n}(x, Q^2)$ and deuteron $g_1^{d}(x, Q^2)$ spin-dependent structure functions dataset including the most recent high-precision measurements from {\tt COMPASS16} experiments at CERN which are playing an increasingly important role in global spin-dependent fits. The careful estimations of uncertainties have been done using the standard 'Hessian error' propagation. We will compare our results with the available spin-dependent inclusive deep inelastic scattering dataset and other results for the spin-dependent PDFs in literature. The results obtained for the spin-dependent PDFs as well as spin-dependent structure functions are clearly explained both in the small and large values of $x$., Comment: 30 Pages,5 figures,3 Table

The experimental data taken from both Drell-Yan and deep-inelastic scattering (DIS) experiments suggest a sign-change in $\bar d(x) - \bar u(x)$ flavor asymmetry in the proton at large values of momentum fraction $x$. In this work, we present a phenomenological study of $\bar d(x) - \bar u(x)$ flavor asymmetry. First, we extract the $\bar d(x)-\bar u(x)$ distribution using the more recent data from the BONuS experiment at Jefferson Lab on the ratio of neutron to proton structure functions, $F_2^n/F_2^p$, and show that it undergoes a sing-change and becomes negative at large values of momentum fraction $x$, as expected. The stability and reliability of our obtained results have been examined by including target mass corrections (TMCs) as well as higher twist (HT) terms which are particularly important at the large-$x$ region at low Q$^2$. Then, we calculate the $\bar d(x) - \bar u(x)$ distribution using the Brodsky, Hoyer, Peterson, and Sakai (BHPS) model and show that if one chooses a mass for the down quark smaller than the one for the up quark it leads to a better description for the Fermilab E866 data. In order to prove this claim, we determine the masses of down and up sea quarks by fitting to the available and up-to-date experimental data for the $\bar d(x)-\bar u(x)$ distribution. In this respect, unlike the previous performed theoretical studies, we have shown that this distribution has a sign-change at $x>0.3$ after evolution to the scale of available experimental data., Comment: 10 pages, 5 figures

We present, for the first time, a set of next-to-next-to-leading order (NNLO) fragmentation functions (FFs) describing the production of charmed-meson $D^{*+}$ from partons. Exploiting the universality and scaling violations of FFs, we extract the NLO and NNLO FFs through a global fit to all relevant data sets from single-inclusive $e^+e^-$ annihilation. The uncertainties for the resulting FFs as well as the corresponding observables are estimated using the Hessian approach. We evaluate the quality of the {\tt SKM18} FFs determined in this analysis by comparing with the recent results in literature and show how they describe the available data for single-inclusive $D^{*+}$-meson production in electron-positron annihilation. As a practical application, we apply the extracted FFs to make our theoretical predictions for the scaled-energy distributions of $D^{*+}$-mesons inclusively produced in top quark decays. We explore the implications of {\tt SKM18} for LHC phenomenology and show that our findings of this study can be introduced as a channel to indirect search for top-quark properties., Comment: 18 pages, 9 figures and 4 tables, Accepted for publication in Physical Review D

In recent years, several experiments at the $e^-p$ collider HERA have collected high precision deep inelastic scattering (DIS) data on the spectrum of leading nucleon carrying a large fraction of the proton's energy. In this paper, we have analyzed recent experimental data on the production of forward proton and neutron in DIS at HERA in the framework of a perturbative QCD. We propose a technique based on the fractures functions framework, and extract the nucleon fracture functions (nucleon FFs) ${\cal M}_2^{(n/p)} (x, Q^2; x_L)$ from global QCD analysis of DIS data measured by ZEUS collaboration at HERA. We have shown that an approach based on the fracture functions formalism allows us phenomenologically parametrize the nucleon FFs. Considering both leading neutron as well as leading proton production data at HERA, we present the results for the separate parton distributions for all parton species, including valence quark densities, the anti-quark densities, the strange sea distribution, and the gluon distribution functions. We proposed several parameterizations for the nucleon FFs and open the possibility of these asymmetries. The obtained optimum set of nucleon FFs is accompanied by Hessian uncertainty sets which allow one to propagate uncertainties to other observables interest. The extracted results for the $t$-integrated leading neutron $F_2^{\rm LN(3)} (x, Q^2; x_L)$ and leading proton $F_2^{\rm LP(3)} (x, Q^2; x_L)$ structure functions are in good agreement with all data analyzed, for a wide range of fractional momentum variable $x$ as well as the longitudinal momentum fraction $x_L$., Comment: 35 pages, 9 figures, 5 Tables, Accepted for publication in Physical Review D

We determine polarized parton distribution functions (PPDFs) and structure functions from recent experimental data of polarized deep inelastic scattering (DIS) on nuleons at next-to-next-to-leading order (NNLO) approximation in perturbative quantum chromodynamic (pQCD). The nucleon polarized structure functions are computed using the Jacobi polynomial approach while target mass corrections (TMCs) are included in our fitting procedure. Having extracted the polarized spin structure functions, we extend our study to describe $^3{\mathrm He}$ and $^3{\mathrm H}$ polarized structure functions, as well as the Bjorken sum rule. We also explore the importance of the nuclear corrections on the polarized nuclear structure functions at small and large values of $x$. Our results are compared with the recent available and high precision polarized $^3{\mathrm He}$ and $^3{\mathrm H}$ experimental data., Comment: 18 page, 12 Figs. , 2 Table

We studied the effects of NLO $Q^2$ evolution of generalized parton distributions (GPDs) using the aligned-jet model for the singlet quark and gluon GPDs at an initial evolution scale. We found that the skewness ratio for quarks is a slow logarithmic function of $Q^2$ reaching $r^S=1.5-2$ at $Q^2=100$ GeV$^2$ and $r^g \approx 1$ for gluons in a wide range of $Q^2$. Using the resulting GPDs, we calculated the DVCS cross section on the proton in NLO pQCD and found that this model in conjunction with modern parameterizations of proton PDFs (CJ15 and CT14) provides a good description of the available H1 and ZEUS data in a wide kinematic range., Comment: 13 pages, 10 figures. Matches the published version

We extract polarized parton distribution functions (PPDFs), referred to as "KTA17," together with the highly correlated strong coupling $\alpha_s$ from recent and up-to-date $g_1$ and $g_2$ polarized structure functions world data at next-to-next-to-leading order in perturbative QCD. The stability and reliability of the results are ensured by including nonperturbative target mass corrections as well as higher-twist terms which are particularly important at the large-$x$ region at low Q$^2$. Their role in extracting the PPDFs in the nucleon is studied. Sum rules are discussed and compared with other results from the literature. This analysis is made by means of the Jacobi polynomials expansion technique to the DGLAP evolution. The uncertainties on the observables and on the PPDFs throughout this paper are computed using standard Hessian error propagation which served to provide a more realistic estimate of the PPDFs uncertainties., Comment: 25 Pages, 16 Figs, 8 Tables

In this article, we present our global QCD analysis of leading neutron production in deep inelastic scattering at H1 and ZEUS collaborations. The analysis is performed in the framework of a perturbative QCD description for semi-inclusive processes which is based on the fracture functions approach. Modeling the non-perturbative part of the fragmentation process at the input scale Q$_0^2$, we analyze the Q$^2$-dependence of the leading neutron structure functions and obtain the neutron fracture functions (neutron FFs) from next-to-leading order (NLO) global QCD fit to data. We have also performed a careful estimation of the uncertainties using the "Hessian method" for the neutron FFs and corresponding observables originating from experimental errors. The predictions based on the obtained neutron FFs are in good agreement with all data analyzed, at small and large longitudinal momentum fraction $x_L$ as well as the scaled fractional momentum variable $\beta$., Comment: 18 Pages, 8 Figures and 3 Tables, Accepted for publication in Physical Review D

In this paper, we examine the potential of Higgs boson production associated with a photon at the LHC to probe the new physics effects in the framework of the standard model effective field theory. It is shown that the differential kinematic distributions such as photon transverse momentum and invariant mass of Higgs+$\gamma$ in Higgs associated production are powerful variables to explore the coefficients of dimension six operators. The analysis is performed in the decay channel of Higgs boson into a $b\bar{b}$ pair including the main sources of background processes and a realistic simulation of the detector effects. We provide constraints at $95\%$ confidence level on the Wilson coefficients of dimension-six operators affecting Higgs boson plus a photon production. We show to what extent these limits could be improved at the high luminosity LHC. The effect of these constraints on a well-motivated beyond standard model scenario is presented., Comment: 17 pages, 7 figures, 3 tables, Updated to match published version

We probe the dimension-six operators contributing to Higgs production in association with a $Z$ boson at the future high-luminosity electron-positron colliders. Potential constraints on dimension-six operators in the Higgs sector are determined by performing a shape analysis on the differential angular distribution of the Higgs and $Z$ boson decay products. The analysis is performed at the center-of-mass energies of 350 and 500 GeV including a realistic detector simulation and the main sources of background processes. The 68\% and 95\% confidence level upper limits are obtained on the contributing anomalous couplings considering only the decay of the Higgs boson into a pair of $b$-quarks and leptonic $Z$ boson decay. Our results show that angular observables provide a great sensitivity to the anomalous couplings, in particular, at the high-luminosity regime., Comment: 13 pages, 6 figures and 3 Tables

We present a detailed QCD analysis of nucleon structure functions $xF_3 (x, Q^2)$, based on Laplace transforms and Jacobi polynomials approach. The analysis corresponds to the next-to-leading order and next-to-next-to-leading order approximation of perturbative QCD. The Laplace transform technique, as an exact analytical solution, is used for the solution of nonsinglet Dokshitzer-Gribov-Lipatov-Altarelli-Parisi evolution equations at low- and large-$x$ values. The extracted results are used as input to obtain the $x$ and Q$^2$ evolution of $xF_3(x, Q^2)$ structure functions using the Jacobi polynomials approach. In our work, the values of the typical QCD scale $\Lambda_{\overline{\rm MS}}^{(n_f)}$ and the strong coupling constant $\alpha_s(M_Z^2)$ are determined for four quark flavors ($n_f=4$) as well. A careful estimation of the uncertainties shall be performed using the Hessian method for the valence-quark distributions, originating from the experimental errors. We compare our valence-quark parton distribution functions sets with those of other collaborations; in particular with the {\tt BBG}, {\tt CT14}, {\tt MMHT14} and {\tt NNPDF} sets, which are contemporary with the present analysis. The obtained results from the analysis are in good agreement with those from the literature., Comment: 14 Pages, 8 Figures, 4 Tables

We present a first QCD analysis of next-to-next-leading-order (NNLO) contributions of the spin-dependent parton distribution functions (PPDFs) in the nucleon and their uncertainties using the Jacobi polynomial approach. Having the NNLO contributions of the quark-quark and gluon-quark splitting functions in perturbative QCD (Nucl. Phys. B 889 (2014) 351-400), one can obtain the evolution of longitudinally polarized parton densities of hadrons up to NNLO accuracy of QCD. A very large sets of recent and up-to-date experimental data of spin structure functions of the proton $g_1^p$, neutron $g_1^n$, and deuteron $g_1^d$ have been used in this analysis. The predictions for the NNLO calculations of the polarized parton distribution functions as well as the proton, neutron and deuteron polarized structure functions are compared with the corresponding results of the NLO approximation. We form a mutually consistent set of polarized PDFs due to the inclusion of the most available experimental data including the recently high-precision measurements from {\tt COMPASS16} experiments (Phys. Lett. B 753 (2016) 18-28). We have performed a careful estimation of the uncertainties using the most common and practical method, the Hessian method, for the polarized PDFs originating from the experimental errors. The proton, neutron and deuteron structure functions and also their first moments, $\Gamma^{\rm p, n, d}$, are in good agreement with the experimental data at small and large momentum fraction of $x$. We will discuss how our knowledge of spin-dependence structure functions can improve at small and large value of $x$ by the recent {\tt COMPASS16} measurements at CERN, the {\tt PHENIX} and {\tt STAR} measurements at RHIC, and at the future proposed colliders such as Electron-Ion collider (EIC)., Comment: 17 Pages, 15 Figures, 8 Tables

An analytical solution based on the Laplace transformation technique for the DGLAP evolution equations is presented at next-to-leading order accuracy in perturbative QCD. This technique is also applied to extract the analytical solution for the proton structure function, $F_2^p(x, Q^2)$, in the Laplace $s$-space. We present the results for the separate parton distributions for all parton species, including valence quark densities, the anti-quark and strange sea parton distribution functions (PDFs), and the gluon distribution. We successfully compare the obtained parton distribution functions and the proton structure function with the results from {\tt GJR08} and {\tt KKT12} parametrization models as well as the $x$-space results using {\tt QCDnum} code. Our calculations show a very good agreement with the available theoretical models as well as the deep inelastic scattering (DIS) experimental data throughout the small and large values of $x$. The use of our analytical solution to extract the parton densities and the proton structure function is discussed in detail to justify the analysis method considering the accuracy and speed of calculations. Overall, the accuracy we obtain from the analytical solution using the inverse Laplace transform technique is found to be better than 1 part in 10$^{4}$ to 10$^{5}$. We also present a detailed QCD analysis of non-singlet structure functions using all available DIS data to perform global QCD fits. In this regard we employ the Jacobi polynomial approach to convert the results from Laplace $s$ space to Bjorken $x$ space. The extracted valence quark densities are also presented and compared to the {\tt JR14}, {\tt MMHT14}, {\tt NNPDF} and {\tt CJ15} PDFs sets. We evaluate the numerical effects of target mass corrections (TMCs) and higher twist (HT) terms on various structure functions, and compare fits to data with and without these corrections., Comment: 25 Pages, 11 Figures and 3 Tables

We perform a next-to-next-to-leading order (NNLO) analysis of nuclear parton distribution functions (nPDFs) using neutral current charged-lepton ($\ell ^\pm$ + nucleus) deeply inelastic scattering (DIS) data and Drell-Yan (DY) cross-section ratios $\sigma_{DY}^{A}/\sigma_{DY}^{A^\prime}$ for several nuclear targets. We study in detail the parametrizations and the atomic mass (A) dependence of the nuclear PDFs at this order. The present nuclear PDFs global analysis provides us a complete set of nuclear PDFs, $f_i^{(A,Z)}(x,Q^2)$, with a full functional dependence on $x$, A, Q$^2$. The uncertainties of the obtained nuclear modification factors for each parton flavour are estimated using the well-known Hessian method. The nuclear charm quark distributions are also added into the analysis. We compare the parametrization results with the available data and the results of other nuclear PDFs groups. We found our nuclear PDFs to be in reasonably good agreement with them. The estimates of errors provided by our global analysis are rather smaller than those of other groups. In general, a very good agreement is achieved. We also briefly review the recent heavy-ion collisions data including the first experimental data from the LHC proton+lead and lead+lead run which can be used in the global fits of nuclear PDFs. We highlight different aspects of the high luminosity Pb--Pb and p--Pb data which have been recorded by the CMS Collaboration., Comment: 19 Pages, 24 Figures, 3 Tables

Large top quark flavor changing through neutral currents is expected by many extensions of the standard model. Direct and indirect searches for flavor changing neutral currents (FCNC) in the top quark decays to an up type quark (up,charm) and a Higgs boson are presented. We probe the observability of the top-Higgs FCNC couplings through the process e$^-$e$^+ \rightarrow t (\rightarrow \ell \nu_{\ell} b) \,\, \bar{t} (\rightarrow q H)$, where $\ell$ = e, $\mu$ and $q$ reflects up and charm quarks. It is shown that the branching ratio $Br(t\rightarrow qH)$ can be probed down to $1.12\times 10^{-3}$ at $95\%$ C.L. at the center-of-mass energy of 500 GeV with the integrated luminosity of 3000 fb$^{-1}$. We also update the constraint on the top-Higgs FCNC coupling using the electroweak precision observables related to $Z\rightarrow c\bar{c}$ decay., Comment: 13 Pages, 3 Figures, 3 Tables

We present a study to examine the sensitivity of a future $e^{-} e^{+}$ collider to the anomalous top flavour-changing neutral current (FCNC) to the gluon. To separate signal from background a multivariate analysis is performed on top-quark pair and background events, where one top quark is considered to follow the dominant Standard Model (SM) decay, $t \rightarrow Wb$, and the other top decays through FCNC, $t\rightarrow qg$, where $q$ is a $u-$ or a $c-$quark. The analysis of fully-hadronic FCNC decay of the $t \bar{t}$ pair is also presented. The $95\%$ confidence level limits on the top-quark anomalous couplings are obtained for different values of the center-of-mass energies and integrated luminosities., Comment: 14 pages, 8 figures, two tables

In this paper, a detailed study to probe the top quark Flavour-Changing Neutral Currents (FCNC) $tq\gamma$ and $tqZ$ at the future $e^{-}e^{+}$ collider FCC-ee in three different center-of-mass energies of 240, 350 and 500 GeV is presented. A set of useful variables are proposed and used in a multivariate technique to separate signal $e^- e^+ \rightarrow Z/\gamma \rightarrow t \bar{q} ~ ( \bar{t} q )$ from standard model background processes. The study includes a fast detector simulation based on the {\sc delphes} package to consider the detector effects. The $3 \sigma$ discovery regions and the upper limits on the FCNC branching ratios at 95\% confidence level (CL) in terms of the integrated luminosity are presented. It is shown that with 300 fb$^{-1}$ of integrated luminosity of data, FCC-ee would be able to exclude the effective coupling strengths above ${\cal O} (10^{-4}-10^{-5})$ which is corresponding to branching fraction of ${\cal O}(0.01-0.001)$\%. We show that moving to a high-luminosity regime leads to a significant improvement on the upper bounds on the top quark FCNC couplings to a photon or a $Z$ boson., Comment: 21 Pages, 6 Figures, 8 Tables