Direct observation of the dead-cone effect in QCD

The ALICE collaboration Acharya, S. ; Acharya, S. ; Adamova, D. ; et al.
Nature 605 (2022) 440-446, 2022.
Inspire Record 1867966 DOI 10.17182/hepdata.130725

In particle collider experiments, elementary particle interactions with large momentum transfer produce quarks and gluons (known as partons) whose evolution is governed by the strong force, as described by the theory of quantum chromodynamics (QCD). These partons subsequently emit further partons in a process that can be described as a parton shower which culminates in the formation of detectable hadrons. Studying the pattern of the parton shower is one of the key experimental tools for testing QCD. This pattern is expected to depend on the mass of the initiating parton, through a phenomenon known as the dead-cone effect, which predicts a suppression of the gluon spectrum emitted by a heavy quark of mass $m_{\rm{Q}}$ and energy $E$, within a cone of angular size $m_{\rm{Q}}$/$E$ around the emitter. Previously, a direct observation of the dead-cone effect in QCD had not been possible, owing to the challenge of reconstructing the cascading quarks and gluons from the experimentally accessible hadrons. We report the direct observation of the QCD dead cone by using new iterative declustering techniques to reconstruct the parton shower of charm quarks. This result confirms a fundamental feature of QCD. Furthermore, the measurement of a dead-cone angle constitutes a direct experimental observation of the non-zero mass of the charm quark, which is a fundamental constant in the standard model of particle physics.

1 data table

The $R(\theta)$ variable for charm/inclusive emissions in three bins of $E_{Rad}$: 5-10, 10-20 and 20-35 GeV.


Measurement of the Muon Charge Asymmetry in Inclusive $pp \to W+X$ Production at $\sqrt s =$ 7 TeV and an Improved Determination of Light Parton Distribution Functions

The CMS collaboration Chatrchyan, Serguei ; Khachatryan, Vardan ; Sirunyan, Albert M ; et al.
Phys.Rev.D 90 (2014) 032004, 2014.
Inspire Record 1273570 DOI 10.17182/hepdata.65456

Measurements of the muon charge asymmetry in inclusive pp to WX production at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV are presented. The data sample corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 4.7 inverse femtobarns recorded with the CMS detector at the LHC. With a sample of more than twenty million W to mu nu events, the statistical precision is greatly improved in comparison to previous measurements. These new results provide additional constraints on the parton distribution functions of the proton in the range of the Bjorken scaling variable x from 10E-3 to 10E-1. These measurements and the recent CMS measurement of associated W + charm production are used together with the cross sections for inclusive deep inelastic ep scattering at HERA in a next-to-leading-order QCD analysis. The determination of the valence quark distributions is improved, and the strange-quark distribution is probed directly through the leading-order process g + s to W + c in proton-proton collisions at the LHC.

4 data tables

Summary of the final results for muon charge asymmetry $\mathcal{A}$ with the muon $p_{T}>25$ GeV. The first uncertainty is statistical and the second is systematic. The theoretical predictions are obtained using the FEWZ 3.1 MC tool interfaced with the NLO CT10, NNPDF2.3, HERAPDF1.5, and MSTW2008CPdeut PDF sets. The PDF uncertainty is at 68% C.L. The values are expressed as percentages.

Summary of the final results for muon charge asymmetry $\mathcal{A}$ with the muon $p_{T}>35$ GeV. The first uncertainty is statistical and the second is systematic. The theoretical predictions are obtained using the FEWZ 3.1 MC tool interfaced with the NLO CT10, NNPDF2.3, HERAPDF1.5, and MSTW2008CPdeut PDF sets. The PDF uncertainty is at 68% C.L. The values are expressed as percentages.

Covariance matrix (statistical and systematic uncertainties combined) with the muon $p_{T}>25$ GeV. The units are in $10^{-4}$.

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Net-Charge Fluctuations in Pb-Pb collisions at \surds_NN = 2.76 TeV

The ALICE collaboration Abelev, Betty ; Adam, Jaroslav ; Adamova, Dagmar ; et al.
Phys.Rev.Lett. 110 (2013) 152301, 2013.
Inspire Record 1123802 DOI 10.17182/hepdata.60476

We report the first measurement of the net-charge fluctuations in Pb-Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}}$ = 2.76 TeV, measured with the ALICE detector at the CERN Large Hadron Collider. The dynamical fluctuations per unit entropy are observed to decrease when going from peripheral to central collisions. An additional reduction in the amount of fluctuations is seen in comparison to the results from lower energies. We examine the dependence of fluctuations on the pseudorapidity interval, which may account for the dilution of fluctuations during the evolution of the system. We find that the fluctuations at LHC are smaller compared to the measurements at the Relativistic heavy Ion Collider (RHIC), and as such, closer to what has been theoretically predicted for the formation of Quark-Gluon Plasma (QGP).

7 data tables

The measured NU(+-DYN) as a function of the centrality of the collisions, expressed as the number of participating nucleons, for two values of midrapidity range.

NU(+-DYN), corrected for charge conservation and finite acceptance effects, as a function of the centrality of the collisions, expressed as the number of participating nucleons, for two values of midrapidity range.

The measured and corrected NU(+-DYN) in P P collisions for two values of midrapidity range.

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