Publications

Order by: publication date number of citations

• The NFLikelihood: An unsupervised DNNLikelihood from normalizing flows

  Humberto Reyes-González, Riccardo Torre

  SciPost Phys. Core 7, 048 (2024) · published 31 July 2024 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We propose the NFLikelihood, an unsupervised version, based on Normalizing Flows, of the DNNLikelihood proposed in [Eur. Phys. J. C 80, 664 (2020)]. We show, through realistic examples, how Autoregressive Flows, based on affine and rational quadratic spline bijectors, are able to learn complicated high-dimensional Likelihoods arising in High Energy Physics (HEP) analyses. We focus on a toy LHC analysis example already considered in the literature and on two Effective Field Theory fits of flavor and electroweak observables, whose samples have been obtained through the HEPFit code. We discuss advantages and disadvantages of the unsupervised approach with respect to the supervised one and discuss a possible interplay between the two.

• Combining QED and approximate ${\rm N}^3$LO QCD corrections in a global PDF fit: MSHT20qed_an3lo PDFs

  T. Cridge, L. A. Harland-Lang, R. S. Thorne

  SciPost Phys. 17, 026 (2024) · published 30 July 2024 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We present the MSHT20qed_an3lo parton distribution functions (PDFs). These result from the first global PDF analysis to combine QED and approximate $N^3$LO (a$N^3$LO) QCD corrections in the theoretical calculation of the PDF evolution and cross sections entering the fit. We examine the PDF impact, and find that the effect of QED is relatively mild in comparison to the a$N^3$LO corrections, although it should still be accounted for at the level of precision now required. These QED corrections are in addition found to roughly factorise from the QCD corrections; that is, their relative impact on the PDFs is roughly the same at NNLO and a$N^3$LO. The fit quality exhibits a very small deterioration at a$N^3$LO upon the inclusion of QED corrections, which is rather smaller than the deterioration observed at NNLO in QCD. The impact on several cross-sections at $N^3$LO is also examined, including the Higgs cross sections at $N^3$LO. Finally, a LO in QCD fit that includes QED corrections is also presented: the MSHT20qed_an3lo set.

• The MadNIS reloaded

  Theo Heimel, Nathan Huetsch, Fabio Maltoni, Olivier Mattelaer, Tilman Plehn, Ramon Winterhalder

  SciPost Phys. 17, 023 (2024) · published 29 July 2024 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  In pursuit of precise and fast theory predictions for the LHC, we present an implementation of the MadNIS method in the MadGraph event generator. A series of improvements in MadNIS further enhance its efficiency and speed. We validate this implementation for realistic partonic processes and find significant gains from using modern machine learning in event generators.

  3 citations

• Improvement and generalization of ABCD method with Bayesian inference

  Ezequiel Alvarez, Leandro Da Rold, Manuel Szewc, Alejandro Szynkman, Santiago A. Tanco, Tatiana Tarutina

  SciPost Phys. Core 7, 043 (2024) · published 15 July 2024 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  To find New Physics or to refine our knowledge of the Standard Model at the LHC is an enterprise that involves many factors, such as the capabilities and the performance of the accelerator and detectors, the use and exploitation of the available information, the design of search strategies and observables, as well as the proposal of new models. We focus on the use of the information and pour our effort in re-thinking the usual data-driven ABCD method to improve it and to generalize it using Bayesian Machine Learning techniques and tools. We propose that a dataset consisting of a signal and many backgrounds is well described through a mixture model. Signal, backgrounds and their relative fractions in the sample can be well extracted by exploiting the prior knowledge and the dependence between the different observables at the event-by-event level with Bayesian tools. We show how, in contrast to the ABCD method, one can take advantage of understanding some properties of the different backgrounds and of having more than two independent observables to measure in each event. In addition, instead of regions defined through hard cuts, the Bayesian framework uses the information of continuous distribution to obtain soft-assignments of the events which are statistically more robust. To compare both methods we use a toy problem inspired by $pp\to hh\to b\bar b b \bar b$, selecting a reduced and simplified number of processes and analysing the flavor of the four jets and the invariant mass of the jet-pairs, modeled with simplified distributions. Taking advantage of all this information, and starting from a combination of biased and agnostic priors, leads us to a very good posterior once we use the Bayesian framework to exploit the data and the mutual information of the observables at the event-by-event level. We show how, in this simplified model, the Bayesian framework outperforms the ABCD method sensitivity in obtaining the signal fraction in scenarios with 1% and 0.5% true signal fractions in the dataset. We also show that the method is robust against the absence of signal. We discuss potential prospects for taking this Bayesian data-driven paradigm into more realistic scenarios.

• disorder: Deep inelastic scattering at high orders

  Alexander Karlberg

  SciPost Phys. Codebases 32 (2024) · published 9 July 2024 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We present a Fortran 77/95 code capable of computing QCD corrections in deep inelastic scattering (DIS). The code uses the Projection-to-Born method to augment an existing $\mathcal{O}(\alpha_{\mathrm{s}}^2)$ dijet DIS code, thereby obtaining predictions for photon-mediated neutral-current single-jet DIS production in the laboratory frame. The code is lightweight and fast, and yet includes the most common functionalities found in typical perturbative QCD programs, like automatic renormalisation and factorisation scale uncertainties, options to run and combine multiple seeds, and interfaces to fastjet and LHAPDF. Due to the underlying disent and HOPPET codes, the program also provides stable results in the infrared, relevant for extracting logarithmic coefficients for analytic resummations, and access to the massless DIS structure functions and (reduced) cross sections up to $\mathcal{O}(\alpha_{\mathrm{s}}^3)$.

  1 citation

• Codebase release r1.0 for disorder

  Alexander Karlberg

  SciPost Phys. Codebases 32-r1.0 (2024) · published 9 July 2024 | Toggle abstract · src

  We present a Fortran 77/95 code capable of computing QCD corrections in deep inelastic scattering (DIS). The code uses the Projection-to-Born method to augment an existing $\mathcal{O}(\alpha_{\mathrm{s}}^2)$ dijet DIS code, thereby obtaining predictions for photon-mediated neutral-current single-jet DIS production in the laboratory frame. The code is lightweight and fast, and yet includes the most common functionalities found in typical perturbative QCD programs, like automatic renormalisation and factorisation scale uncertainties, options to run and combine multiple seeds, and interfaces to fastjet and LHAPDF. Due to the underlying disent and HOPPET codes, the program also provides stable results in the infrared, relevant for extracting logarithmic coefficients for analytic resummations, and access to the massless DIS structure functions and (reduced) cross sections up to $\mathcal{O}(\alpha_{\mathrm{s}}^3)$.

  1 citation

• Returning CP-observables to the frames they belong

  Jona Ackerschott, Rahool Kumar Barman, Dorival Gonçalves, Theo Heimel, Tilman Plehn

  SciPost Phys. 17, 001 (2024) · published 2 July 2024 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Optimal kinematic observables are often defined in specific frames and then approximated at the reconstruction level. We show how multi-dimensional unfolding methods allow us to reconstruct these observables in their proper rest frame and in a probabilistically faithful way. We illustrate our approach with a measurement of a CP-phase in the top Yukawa coupling. Our method makes use of key advantages of generative unfolding, but as a constructed observable it fits into standard LHC analysis frameworks.

  3 citations

• Introduction to the PanScales framework, version 0.1

  Melissa van Beekveld, Mrinal Dasgupta, Basem Kamal El-Menoufi, Silvia Ferrario Ravasio, Keith Hamilton, Jack Helliwell, Alexander Karlberg, Rok Medves, Pier Francesco Monni, Gavin P. Salam, Ludovic Scyboz, Alba Soto-Ontoso, Gregory Soyez, Rob Verheyen

  SciPost Phys. Codebases 31 (2024) · published 25 June 2024 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  In this article, we document version 0.1 of the PANSCALES code for parton shower simulations. With the help of a few examples, we discuss basic usage of the code, including tests of logarithmic accuracy of parton showers. We expose some of the numerical techniques underlying the logarithmic tests and include a description of how users can implement their own showers within the framework. Some of the simpler logarithmic tests can be performed in a few minutes on a modern laptop. As an early step towards phenomenology, we also outline some aspects of a preliminary interface to PYTHIA 8.3, for access to its hard matrix elements and its hadronisation modules.

  2 citations

• Codebase release r0.1 for PanScales

  Melissa van Beekveld, Mrinal Dasgupta, Basem Kamal El-Menoufi, Silvia Ferrario Ravasio, Keith Hamilton, Jack Helliwell, Alexander Karlberg, Rok Medves, Pier Francesco Monni, Gavin P. Salam, Ludovic Scyboz, Alba Soto-Ontoso, Gregory Soyez, Rob Verheyen

  SciPost Phys. Codebases 31-r0.1 (2024) · published 25 June 2024 | Toggle abstract · src

  In this article, we document version 0.1 of the PANSCALES code for parton shower simulations. With the help of a few examples, we discuss basic usage of the code, including tests of logarithmic accuracy of parton showers. We expose some of the numerical techniques underlying the logarithmic tests and include a description of how users can implement their own showers within the framework. Some of the simpler logarithmic tests can be performed in a few minutes on a modern laptop. As an early step towards phenomenology, we also outline some aspects of a preliminary interface to PYTHIA 8.3, for access to its hard matrix elements and its hadronisation modules.

  1 citation

• Symmetry energy in holographic QCD

  Lorenzo Bartolini, Sven Bjarke Gudnason

  SciPost Phys. 16, 156 (2024) · published 19 June 2024 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We study the symmetry energy (SE), an important quantity in nuclear physics, in the Witten-Sakai-Sugimoto model and in a much simpler hard-wall model of holographic QCD. The SE is the energy contribution to the nucleus due to having an unequal number of neutrons and protons. Using a homogeneous Ansatz representing smeared instantons and quantizing their isospin, we extract the SE and the proton fraction assuming charge neutrality and beta-equilibrium, using quantization of the isospin zeromode. We also show the equivalence between our method adapted from solitons and the usual way of the isospin controlled by a chemical potential at the holographic boundary. We find that the SE can be well described in the WSS model if we allow for a larger 't Hooft coupling and lower Kaluza-Klein scale than is normally used in phenomenological fits.