The role of uncertainties in parton distribution functions
High Energy Physics - Phenomenology
2007-11-20 v1
Abstract
I consider the uncertainties in parton distributions and the consequences for hadronic cross-sections. There is ever-increasing sophistication in the relationship between the uncertainties of the distributions and the errors on the experimental data used to extract them. However, I demonstrate that this uncertainty is frequently subsumed by that due to the choice of data used in fits, and more surprisingly by the precise details of the theoretical framework used. Variations in heavy flavour prescriptions provide striking examples.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.0711.2986,
title = {The role of uncertainties in parton distribution functions},
author = {R. S. Thorne},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0711.2986},
year = {2007}
}
Comments
10 pages, 15 figures as .ps or .eps files, invited talk at PHYSTAT-LHC Workshop on Statistical Issues for LHC Physics, June 2007