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Title: Hadronic structure in high-energy collisions

Journal Article · · Reviews of Modern Physics
 [1];  [2];  [3]
  1. Westfalische Wilhelms-Universitat Munster (Germany)
  2. Southern Methodist Univ., Dallas, TX (United States)
  3. Univ. of Oregon, Eugene, OR (United States)

Here, Parton distribution functions (PDFs) describe the structure of hadrons as composed of quarks and gluons. They are needed to make predictions for short-distance processes in high-energy collisions and are determined by fitting to cross-section data. Definitions of the PDFs and their relations to high-energy cross sections are reviewed. The focus is on the PDFs in protons, but PDFs in nuclei are also discussed. The standard statistical treatment needed to fit the PDFs to data using the Hessian method is reviewed in some detail. Tests are discussed that critically examine whether the needed assumptions are indeed valid. Also presented are some ideas of what one can do in case tests indicate that the assumptions fail.

Research Organization:
Southern Methodist Univ., Dallas, TX (United States); Univ. of Oregon, Eugene, OR (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC); National Science Foundation (NSF)
Grant/Contract Number:
SC0010129; SC0011640; PHY11-25915; PHY-1607611
OSTI ID:
1851335
Journal Information:
Reviews of Modern Physics, Vol. 92, Issue 4; ISSN 0034-6861
Publisher:
American Physical Society (APS)Copyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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How bright is the proton? A precise determination of the photon parton distribution function text January 2016
Running of the Charm-Quark Mass from HERA Deep-Inelastic Scattering Data text January 2017
Towards Ultimate Parton Distributions at the High-Luminosity LHC text January 2018
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Tests of goodness of fit to multiple data sets preprint January 2001
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Collinear Subtractions in Hadroproduction of Heavy Quarks text January 2005

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