Search

The European Committee for Future Accelerators (ECFA) Early-Career Researcher (ECR) panel, which represents the interests of the ECR community to ECFA, presents in this document its initiatives and activities in the year 2023. This report summarises the process of the first big turnover in the panel composition at the start of 2023 and reports on the activities of the active working groups - either pursued from before or newly established. The overarching goal of the ECFA-ECR panel is to better understand and support the diverse interests of early-career researchers in the ECFA community and beyond., Comment: Editors: Jan-Hendrik Arling, Cecilia Borca, Armin Ilg, Arnau Morancho Tarda, Holly Pacey, Marko Pesut, Elisabetta Spadaro Norella and Marta Urbaniak. arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:2212.11238

We perform a detailed phenomenological study of high-energy neutrino deep inelastic scattering (DIS) focused on LHC far-forward experiments such as FASER$\nu$ and SND@LHC. To this aim, we parametrise the neutrino fluxes reaching these LHC far-forward experiments in terms of `neutrino PDFs' encoding their energy and rapidity dependence by means of the LHAPDF framework. We integrate these neutrino PDFs in the recently developed POWHEG-BOX-RES implementation of neutrino-induced DIS to produce predictions accurate at next-to-leading order (NLO) in the QCD coupling matched to parton showers (PS) with Pythia8. We present NLO+PS predictions for final-state distributions within the acceptance of FASER$\nu$ and SND@LHC as well as for two experiments of the proposed Forward Physics Facility (FPF), FASER$\nu$2 and FLArE. We quantify the impact of NLO QCD corrections, of the parton showering and hadronisation settings in Pythia8, of the QED shower, and of the incoming neutrino flavour for the description of these observables, and compare our predictions with the GENIE neutrino event generator. Our work demonstrates the relevance of modern higher-order event generators to achieve the key scientific targets of the LHC neutrino experiments., Comment: 25 pages, 12 figures, v2: version accepted for publication in EPJC

We extend the recently presented, fully exclusive, next-to-leading-order accurate event generator for the simulation of massless neutral- and charged-current deep inelastic scattering (DIS) to the case of incoming neutrinos. The generator can be used to study neutrino-nucleon interactions at (ultra) high energies, and is relevant for a range of fixed-target collider experiments and large-volume neutrino detectors, investigating atmospheric and astrophysical neutrinos. The matching with multi-purpose event generators such as PYTHIA 8 is performed with the POWHEG method, and accounts for parton showering and non-perturbative effects such as hadronization. This makes it possible to investigate higher-order perturbative corrections to realistic observables, such as the distribution of charged particles. To illustrate the capabilities of the code we provide predictions for several differential distributions in fixed-target collisions for neutrino energies up to 1 PeV., Comment: 16 pages. Code available from https://powhegbox.mib.infn.it/

We report on a major milestone in the construction of logarithmically accurate final-state parton showers, achieving next-to-next-to-leading-logarithmic (NNLL) accuracy for the wide class of observables known as event shapes. The key to this advance lies in the identification of the relation between critical NNLL analytic resummation ingredients and their parton-shower counterparts. Our analytic discussion is supplemented with numerical tests of the logarithmic accuracy of three shower variants for more than a dozen distinct event-shape observables in $Z \to q \bar q$ and Higgs $\to gg$ decays. The NNLL terms are phenomenologically sizeable, as illustrated in comparisons to data., Comment: 6 pages plus supplemental material; public code available as part of 0.2.0 release of PanScales, https://gitlab.com/panscales/panscales-0.X

This note documents predictions for the inclusive production cross sections of the Standard Model Higgs boson at the Large Hadron Collider at a centre of mass energy of 13.6 TeV. The predictions here are based on simple extrapolations of previously documented predictions published in the CERN Yellow Report "Deciphering the Nature of the Higgs Sector". The predictions documented in this note should serve as a reference while a more complete and update-to-date derivation of cross section predictions is in progress., Comment: 13 pages, 9 tables. Official report of the LHC Higgs Working Group

In this article, we document version 0.1 of the PanScales code for parton shower simulations. With the help of a few examples, we discuss basic usage of the code, including tests of logarithmic accuracy of parton showers. We expose some of the numerical techniques underlying the logarithmic tests and include a description of how users can implement their own showers within the framework. Some of the simpler logarithmic tests can be performed in a few minutes on a modern laptop. As an early step towards phenomenology, we also outline some aspects of a preliminary interface to Pythia, for access to its hard matrix elements and its hadronisation modules., Comment: Code available from https://gitlab.com/panscales/panscales-0.X, 23 pages, 5 figures

A new release of the Monte Carlo event generator Herwig (version 7.3) has been launched. This iteration encompasses several enhancements over its predecessor, version 7.2. Noteworthy upgrades include: the implementation of a process-independent electroweak angular-ordered parton shower integrated with QCD and QED radiation; a new recoil scheme for initial-state radiation improving the behaviour of the angular-ordered parton shower; the incorporation of the heavy quark effective theory to refine the hadronization and decay of excited heavy mesons and heavy baryons; a dynamic strategy to regulate the kinematic threshold of cluster splittings within the cluster hadronization model; several improvements to the structure of the cluster hadronization model allowing for refined models; the possibility to extract event-by-event hadronization corrections in a well-defined way; the possibility of using the string model, with a dedicated tune. Additionally, a new tuning of the parton shower and hadronization parameters has been executed. This article discusses the novel features introduced in version 7.3.0., Comment: 10 pages, 3 figures. Herwig is available from https://herwig.hepforge.org

We present a new event generator for the simulation of both neutral- and charged-current deep inelastic scattering (DIS) at next-to-leading order in QCD matched to parton showers using the POWHEG method. Our implementation builds on the existing POWHEG BOX framework originally designed for hadron-hadron collisions, supplemented by considerable extensions to account for the genuinely different kinematics inherent to lepton-hadron collisions. In particular, we present new momentum mappings that conserve the special kinematics found in DIS, which we use to modify the POWHEG BOX implementation of the Frixione-Kunszt-Signer subtraction mechanism. We compare our predictions to fixed-order and resummed predictions, as well as to data from the HERA ep collider. Finally we study a few representative distributions for the upcoming Electron Ion Collider., Comment: 54 pages, 25 figures, code obtainable from svn://powhegbox.mib.infn.it/trunk/User-Processes-RES/DIS

The accuracy of parton-shower simulations is often a limiting factor in the interpretation of data from high-energy colliders. We present the first formulation of parton showers with accuracy one order beyond state-of-the-art next-to-leading logarithms, for classes of observable that are dominantly sensitive to low-energy (soft) emissions, specifically non-global observables and subjet multiplicities. This represents a major step towards general next-to-next-to-leading logarithmic accuracy for parton showers., Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures + supplemental material (+ 5 pages, 3 figures); v2 matches the version published in Physical Review Letters

We introduce the first family of parton showers that achieve next-to-leading logarithmic (NLL) accuracy for processes involving a $t$-channel exchange of a colour-singlet, and embed them in the PanScales framework. These showers are applicable to processes such as deep inelastic scattering (DIS), vector boson fusion (VBF), and vector boson scattering (VBS). We extensively test and verify the NLL accuracy of the new showers at both fixed order and all orders across a wide range of observables. We also introduce a generalisation of the Cambridge-Aachen jet algorithm and formulate new DIS observables that exhibit a simple resummation structure. The NLL showers are compared to a standard transverse-momentum ordered dipole shower, serving as a proxy for the current state-of-the-art leading-logarithmic showers available in public codes. Depending on the observable, we find discrepancies at NLL of the order of $15\%$. We also present some exploratory phenomenological results for Higgs production in VBF. This work enables, for the first time, to resum simultaneously global and non-global observables for the VBF process at NLL accuracy., Comment: 34 pages + 10 pages of Appendices, 13 figures

We present the implementation of a next-to-leading-order plus parton-shower event generator for the hadronic production of a heavy charm quark accompanied by a leptonically-decaying $W$ boson in the POWHEG BOX RES framework. We consider both signatures, i.e. $pp\to c\, \ell^- \bar{\nu}_{\ell}$ and $pp\to \bar{c} \,\ell^+ {\nu}_{\ell}$, and we include exactly off-shell and spin-correlation effects, as well as off-diagonal Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa contributions. We present particle-level results, obtained interfacing our code with the Herwig7.2 and Pythia8.3 shower Monte Carlo event generators, including hadronization and underlying-event effects, and compare them against the data collected by the CMS Collaboration at $\sqrt{s}=13$ TeV., Comment: 25 pages, 13 figures

We carry out extensive tests of the next-to-leading logarithmic (NLL) accuracy of the PanScales parton showers, as introduced recently for colour-singlet production in hadron collisions. The tests include comparisons to (semi-)analytic NLL calculations of a wide range of hadron-collider observables: the colour-singlet boson transverse momentum distribution; global and non-global hadronic energy flow variables related to jet vetoes and analogues of jettiness distributions; (sub)jet multiplicities; and observables sensitive to the DGLAP evolution of the incoming momentum fractions. In the tests, we also include an implementation of a standard transverse-momentum ordered dipole shower, to establish the size of missing NLL effects in such showers, which, depending on the observable, can reach $100\%$. This paper, together with arXiv:2205.02237, constitutes the first step towards process-independent NLL-accurate parton showers for hadronic collisions., Comment: 35 pages, 10 figures, v2 (new exploratory phenomenological results of the showers with scale variation)

We formulate PanScales parton showers for hadron collisions so as to achieve next-to-leading logarithmic (NLL) accuracy across a broad set of observables. We do so specifically for colour singlet production. Relative to the existing PanScales final-state showers, the main new question is that of how to redistribute momentum imbalances from initial-state branching across the remainder of the event. We presents tests of the showers at fixed order, including the treatment of full colour for soft-collinear emissions and of spin correlations in both the soft and collinear domains. We also include comparisons to a formulation of a standard dipole shower, the current leading-logarithmic state of the art. A forthcoming companion paper will explore all-order tests of the new showers., Comment: 65 pages, 15 figures; v2 includes additional clarifications and comparisons, as accepted for publication in JHEP

We use an abelian model to study linear power corrections which arise from infrared renormalons and affect event shapes in $e^+e^-$ annihilation into hadrons. While previous studies explored power corrections in the two-jet region, in this paper we focus on the three-jet region, which is the most relevant one for the determination of the strong coupling constant. We show that for a broad class of shape variables, linear power corrections can be written in a factorised form, that involves an analytically-calculable function, that characterises changes in the shape variable when a soft parton is emitted, and a constant universal factor. This universal factor is proportional to the so-called Milan factor, introduced in earlier literature to describe linear power corrections in the two-jet region. We find that the power corrections in the two-jet and in the three-jet regions are different, a result which is bound to have important consequences for the determination of the strong coupling constant from event shapes. As a further illustration of the power of the approach developed in this paper, we provide explicit analytic expressions for the leading power corrections to the $C$-parameter and the thrust distributions in the $N$-jet region for arbitrary $N$, albeit in the abelian model., Comment: 44 pages + 4 appendices, 3 figures; v2: version published in JHEP

We study linear power corrections ${\cal O}(\Lambda_{\rm QCD}/Q)$ to certain collider observables. We present arguments that prove that such corrections cannot appear in observables that are inclusive with respect to QCD radiation, such as total cross sections as well as rapidity and transverse momentum distributions of color-neutral particles. Although our calculations are carried out in a simplified framework, our arguments and conclusions are applicable, with some reservations, to processes both at lepton and hadron colliders. We also show how an improved understanding of the origin of linear power corrections allows us to simplify their calculation. As an application, we compute the leading non-perturbative corrections to the $C$-parameter and the thrust in $e^+e^-$ annihilation in a generic three-jet configuration., Comment: v2: references added, minor typos corrected. Version published in JHEP

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 $Z^0$-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., Comment: 26 pages, 7 figures, 2 tables

Precise theoretical predictions are a key ingredient for an accurate determination of the structure of the Langrangian of particle physics, including its free parameters, which summarizes our understanding of the fundamental interactions among particles. Furthermore, due to the absence of clear new-physics signals, precise theoretical calculations are required in order to pin down possible subtle deviations from the Standard Model predictions. The error associated with such calculations must be scrutinized, as non-perturbative power corrections, dubbed infrared renormalons, can limit the ultimate precision of truncated perturbative expansions in quantum chromodynamics. In this review we focus on linear power corrections that can arise in certain kinematic distributions relevant for collider phenomenology where an operator product expansion is missing, e.g. those obtained from the top-quark decay products, shape observables and the transverse momentum of massive gauge bosons. Only the last one is found to be free from such corrections, while the mass of the system comprising the top decay products has a larger power correction if the perturbative expansion is expressed in terms of a short-distance mass instead of the pole mass. A proper modelization of non-perturbative corrections is crucial in the context of shape observables to obtain reliable strong coupling constant extractions., Comment: Contribution to EPJ ST "Renormalons and Hyperasymptotics in QCD"

In these proceedings we investigate the impact of offshell and non-resonant contributions to kinematic distributions in $t\bar{t}$ final states by comparing several next-to-leading-order~(NLO) + parton shower (PS) generators which differ in the way they model these effects. We focus on distributions traditionally used for measurements of fundamental top-quark properties such as its Yukawa coupling or its mass. Given the current experimental uncertainties, we find that such effects can have relatively large impact on the shape of these distributions and are thus mandatory for accurate measurements., Comment: Top2020 (Durham). 7 pages, 4 figures

We present a calculation of the next-to-leading order (NLO) QCD corrections to gluon-induced electroweak gauge boson pair production, $gg \to ZZ$ and $gg \to W^+W^-$, matched to the PYTHIA8 parton shower in the POWHEG approach. The calculation consistently incorporates the continuum background, the Higgs-mediated $gg\to H^* \to VV$ process, and their interference. We consider leptonic decay modes of the massive vector bosons and retain offshell and non-resonant contributions. The processes considered are loop-induced at leading order and thus contain two-loop virtual contributions as well as loop-squared real contributions. Parton-shower effects are found to be marginal in inclusive observables and quite sizeable in observables that are exclusive in additional jet radiation. The Monte Carlo generator presented here allows for realistic experimental effects to be incorporated in state-of-the-art precision analyses of diboson production and of the Higgs boson in the offshell regime., Comment: 15 pages, 13 figures, 1 table

Infrared renormalons in Quantum Chromodynamics are associated with non-perturbative corrections to short distance observables. Linear renormalons, i.e. such that the associated non-perturbative corrections scale like one inverse power of the hard scale, can affect at a non-negligible level even the very high-energy phenomena studied at the Large Hadron Collider. Using an Abelian model, we study the presence of linear renormalons in the transverse momentum distribution of a neutral vector boson $Z$ produced in hadronic collisions. We consider a process where the $Z$ transverse momentum is balanced by a sizable recoil against a coloured final state particle. One may worry that such a colour configuration, not being azimuthally symmetric, could generate unbalanced soft radiation, associated in turn with linear infrared renormalons affecting the transverse momentum distribution of the vector boson. We performed a numerical calculation of the renormalon effects for this process in the so-called large $b_0$ limit. We found no evidence of linear renormalons in the transverse momentum distribution of the $Z$ in the large transverse-momentum region, irrespective of rapidity cuts., Comment: 24 pages, 10 figures

A precise determination of the top mass is one of the key goals of the LHC and future colliders. Since power corrections are now becoming a source of worry for top-mass measurements, in these proceedings I discuss the impact of linear infrared renormalons, which plague the definition of the top pole-mass $m$, on observables expressed in terms of $m$ and in terms of a short-distance mass., Comment: LFC19: Strong dynamics for physics within and beyond the Standard Model at LHC and Future Colliders, 9-13 Sept 2019. 7 pages, 3 figures, 1 Table

A new release of the Monte Carlo event generator Herwig (version 7.2) is now available. This version introduces a number of improvements, notably: improvements to the simulation of multiple-parton interactions, including diffractive processes; a new model for baryonic colour re-connection; spin correlations in both the dipole and angular-ordered parton showers; improvements to strangeness production; an improved choice of evolution variable in the angular-ordered parton shower; support for generic Lorentz structures in BSM models., Comment: 7 pages, 5 figures. Herwig is available from https://herwig.hepforge.org. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1705.06919

In these proceedings we present three possible interpretations of the ordering variable implemented in the Herwig7 angular-ordered parton shower. Each interpretation determines a different recoil-scheme prescription and we show how it can impact the logarithmic accuracy of the algorithm. We also present comparisons with LEP data., Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures, LFC19: Strong dynamics for physics within and beyond the Standard Model at LHC and Future Colliders

This paper is a follow-up of Ref.~\cite{Ravasio:2018lzi}, where we studied the impact of next-to-leading order calculations merged with parton shower generators (NLO+PS) of increasing accuracy in the extraction of the top mass at hadron colliders. Here we examined results obtained with the older (fortran-based) shower generators Pythia6.4 and Herwig6.5. Our findings are in line with what we found in our previous paper with the new, c++-based, generators Pythia8.2 and Herwig7.1., Comment: 13 pages, 11 figures, 6 tables

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.

In this thesis we focus on the theoretical subtleties of the top-quark mass ($m_t$) determination, issue which persists in being highly controversial. In the first part of the thesis, we investigate the presence of linear renormalons in observables that can be employed to determine the top mass. We considered a simplified toy model to describe $W^{*} \rightarrow t \bar{b} \to Wb \bar{b}$. The computation is carried out in the limit of a large number of flavours ($n_f$), using a new method that allows to easily evaluate any infrared safe observable at order $\alpha_s(\alpha_s n_f)^n$ for any $n$. The second part of the thesis is devoted to the comparison of several NLO generators for top-pair production, implemented in the POWHEG BOX framework, that differ by the level of accuracy employed to describe the top decay. The impact of the shower Monte Carlo programs, used to complete the NLO events generated by POWHEG BOX, is also studied. In particular, we discuss the two most widely used shower Monte Carlo programs, i.e. Pythia 8.2 and Herwig 7.1, and we present a method to interface them with processes that contain decayed emitting resonances., Comment: PhD thesis: 152 pages, 50 figures, 34 tables

We study a simplified model of top production and decay, consisting in a virtual vector boson $W^*$ decaying into a massive-massless $t$-$\bar{b}$ quark-antiquark pair. The top has a finite width and further decays into a stable vector boson $W$ and a $b$ quark. We then consider the emission or the virtual exchange of one gluon, with all possible light-quark loop insertions. These are the dominant diagrams in the limit of an infinite number of light flavours. We devise a procedure to compute this process fully, by analytic and numerical methods, and for any infrared-safe final-state observables. We examine the results at arbitrary orders in perturbation theory, and assess the factorial growth associated with renormalons. We look for renormalon effects leading to corrections of order $\Lambda_{\rm QCD}$, that we dub `linear' renormalons, in the inclusive cross section (with and without selection cuts), in the mass of the reconstructed-top system, and in the average energy of the final-state $W$ boson, considering both the pole and the $\overline{\rm MS}$ scheme for the top mass. We find that the total cross section without cuts, if expressed in terms of the $\overline{\rm MS}$ mass, does not exhibit linear renormalons, but, as soon as selection cuts are introduced, jets-related linear renormalons arise in any mass scheme. In addition, we show that the reconstructed mass is affected by linear renormalons in any scheme and that the average energy of the $W$ boson (that we consider as a simplified example of leptonic observable), in any mass scheme, has a renormalon in the narrow-width limit, that is however screened at large orders for finite top widths, provided the top mass is in the $\overline{\rm MS}$ scheme., Comment: 40 pages, 17 figures

The top quark is the heaviest elementary particle in the Standard Model (SM). For this reason, a precise determination of its mass $m_t$ is part of the LHC physics program. The most accurate determinations of $m_t$ rely on the kinematic reconstruction of the top decay products and on the use of Monte Carlo event generators. In these proceedings I discuss the impact of different theoretical descriptions for the process of top pair production at the LHC on the extraction of $m_t$., Comment: Plenary talk at IFAE 2018, Milano (Italy), 04-06 April 2018

We study the theoretical uncertainties in the determination of the top-quark mass using next-to-leading-order (NLO) generators, that describe the top-quark decay at different levels of accuracy, interfaced to parton showers (PS). Specifically we consider one generator that implements NLO corrections only in the production dynamics, one that also takes them into account in the top-quark decay in the narrow width approximation (NWA) and one that implements them exactly, including finite-width and interference effects. We aim at assessing the errors in top-mass determinations of purely theoretical origin. We do so by measuring relative peak position shifts of $Wb$-jet mass distributions. Besides the theoretical errors due to the use of less accurate NLO+PS generators, we also explore uncertainties related to shower and modelling of non-perturbative effects by comparing the results obtained by interfacing our generators to both Pythia and Herwig shower Monte Carlos (SMCs)., Comment: Proceedings of the XXVI International Workshop on Deep-Inelastic Scattering and Related Subjects (DIS2018), 16-20 April 2018, Kobe, Japan

In this paper we study the theoretical uncertainties in the determination of the top-quark mass using next-to-leading-order (NLO) generators interfaced to parton showers (PS) that have different levels of accuracy. Specifically we consider three generators: one that implements NLO corrections in the production dynamics, one that includes also NLO corrections in top decay in the narrow width approximation, and one that implements NLO corrections for both production and decay including finite-width and interference effects. Since our aim is to provide an assessment of the uncertainties of purely theoretical origin, we consider simplified top-mass related observables that are broadly related to those effectively used by experiments, eventually modelling experimental resolution effects with simple smearing procedures. We estimate the differences in the value of the extracted top mass that would occur due to the use of the three different NLO generators, to the variation of scales, to the choice of parton distribution functions and to the matching procedure. Furthermore, we also consider differences due to the shower and to the modelling of non-perturbative effects by interfacing our NLO generators to both Pythia8.2 and Herwig7.1, with various settings. We find very different results depending upon the adopted shower model. While with Pythia8.2 we find moderate differences between the different NLO+PS generators, with Herwig7.1 we find very large ones. Furthermore, the differences between Pythia8.2 and Herwig7.1 generators are also remarkably large., Comment: Version accepted for publication by EPJC. 55 pages, 17 figures, 25 tables