Abstract
As the LHC experiments increase their statistics and reduce their systematics, it is in- creasingly important to reduce the theoretical uncertainties so we can perform precision com- parisons. The parton distribution functions (PDFs) which describe the hadronic structure of protons and nuclei are the critical link between the experimental data and the proposed theoretical models; hence, a better understanding of the PDFs is essential for improved pre- dictions. Nuclear PDFs, in particular, have proven valuable in this regard, especially for flavor differentiation. I introduce ”nCTEQ+LHC,” the first PDF set fit using the nCTEQ formalism to include data from the LHC. This PDF set also represents the first results of the new (C++ based) ”nCTEQ++” fitting code. To incorporate many new LHC processes into nCTEQ++, I developed and tested a novel way of uniting various theory tools in a modular framework to enable fast PDF fitting of complex higher-order theory calculations using modern grid techniques. This combination of tools provides a foundation for a wide variety of future analysis involving both proton and nuclear data.
Degree Date
Spring 5-19-2018
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Ph.D.
Department
Physics
Advisor
Fredrick Olness
Subject Area
Physics
Number of Pages
333
Format
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 License
Recommended Citation
Godat, Eric, "The Impact of pPb W/Z LHC Data on nCTEQ15 Parton Distribution Functions With an Emphasis on Refitting the nCTEQ15 nPDF Set" (2018). Physics Theses and Dissertations. 2.
https://scholar.smu.edu/hum_sci_physics_etds/2
DOI
https://doi.org/10.25172/td.1683116348
