Snowmass 2021 whitepaper: Proton structure at the precision frontier
Abstract
An overwhelming number of theoretical predictions for hadron colliders require parton distribution functions (PDFs), which are an important ingredient of theory infrastructure for the next generation of high-energy experiments. This whitepaper summarizes the status and future prospects for determination of high-precision PDFs applicable in a wide range of energies and experiments, in particular in precision tests of the Standard Model and in new physics searches at the high-luminosity Large Hadron Collider and Electron-Ion Collider. We discuss the envisioned advancements in experimental measurements, QCD theory, global analysis methodology, and computing that are necessary to bring unpolarized PDFs in the nucleon to the N2LO and N3LO accuracy in the QCD coupling strength. Special attention is given to the new tasks that emerge in the era of the precision PDF analysis, such as those focusing on the robust control of systematic factors both in experimental measurements and theoretical computations. Various synergies between experimental and theoretical studies of the hadron structure are explored, including opportunities for studying PDFs for nuclear and meson targets, PDFs with electroweak contributions or dependence on the transverse momentum, for incisive comparisons between phenomenological models for the PDFs and computations on discrete lattice, and for cross-fertilization with machine learning/AI approaches. [Submitted to the US Community Study on the Future of Particle Physics (Snowmass 2021).]
Cite
@article{arxiv.2203.13923,
title = {Snowmass 2021 whitepaper: Proton structure at the precision frontier},
author = {S. Amoroso and A. Apyan and N. Armesto and R. D. Ball and V. Bertone and C. Bissolotti and J. Bluemlein and R. Boughezal and G. Bozzi and D. Britzger and A. Buckley and A. Candido and S. Carrazza and F. G. Celiberto and S. Cerci and G. Chachamis and A. M. Cooper-Sarkar and A. Courtoy and T. Cridge and J. M. Cruz-Martinez and F. Giuli and M. Guzzi and C. Gwenlan and L. A. Harland-Lang and F. Hekhorn and T. J. Hobbs and S. Hoeche and A. Huss and J. Huston and J. Jalilian-Marian and M. Klein and G. K. Krintiras and C. Loizides and H. -W. Lin and G. Magni and B. Malaescu and B. Mistlberger and S. Moch and P. M. Nadolsky and E. R. Nocera and F. I. Olness and F. Petriello and J. Pires and K. Rabbertz and J. Rojo and G. Schnell and C. Schwan and A. Siodmok and D. E. Soper and M. Sutton and R. S. Thorne and M. Ubiali and G. Vita and J. H. Weber and K. Xie and C. -P. Yuan and B. Zhou},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2203.13923},
year = {2023}
}
Comments
83 pages, 27 figures, contribution to Snowmass 2021; v.3: journal version