Publications

Order by: publication date number of citations

• How to GAN away detector effects

  Marco Bellagente, Anja Butter, Gregor Kasieczka, Tilman Plehn, Ramon Winterhalder

  SciPost Phys. 8, 070 (2020) · published 29 April 2020 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  LHC analyses directly comparing data and simulated events bear the danger of using first-principle predictions only as a black-box part of event simulation. We show how simulations, for instance, of detector effects can instead be inverted using generative networks. This allows us to reconstruct parton level information from measured events. Our results illustrate how, in general, fully conditional generative networks can statistically invert Monte Carlo simulations. As a technical by-product we show how a maximum mean discrepancy loss can be staggered or cooled.

  48 citations

• Exploring phase space with Neural Importance Sampling

  Enrico Bothmann, Timo Janßen, Max Knobbe, Tobias Schmale, Steffen Schumann

  SciPost Phys. 8, 069 (2020) · published 29 April 2020 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We present a novel approach for the integration of scattering cross sections and the generation of partonic event samples in high-energy physics. We propose an importance sampling technique capable of overcoming typical deficiencies of existing approaches by incorporating neural networks. The method guarantees full phase space coverage and the exact reproduction of the desired target distribution, in our case given by the squared transition matrix element. We study the performance of the algorithm for a few representative examples, including top-quark pair production and gluon scattering into three- and four-gluon final states.

  58 citations

• Multi-scale mining of kinematic distributions with wavelets

  Ben G. Lillard, Tilman Plehn, Alexis Romero, Tim M. P. Tait

  SciPost Phys. 8, 043 (2020) · published 17 March 2020 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Typical LHC analyses search for local features in kinematic distributions. Assumptions about anomalous patterns limit them to a relatively narrow subset of possible signals. Wavelets extract information from an entire distribution and decompose it at all scales, simultaneously searching for features over a wide range of scales. We propose a systematic wavelet analysis and show how bumps, bump-dip combinations, and oscillatory patterns are extracted. Our kinematic wavelet analysis kit KWAK provides a publicly available framework to analyze and visualize general distributions.

  2 citations

• Properties of heavy mesons at finite temperature

  Gloria Montaña, Angels Ramos, Laura Tolós

  SciPost Phys. Proc. 3, 038 (2020) · published 26 February 2020 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We study the properties of heavy mesons using a unitarized approach in a hot pionic medium, based on an effective hadronic theory. The interaction between the heavy mesons and pseudoscalar Goldstone bosons is described by a chiral Lagrangian at next-to-leading order in the chiral expansion and leading order in the heavy-quark mass expansion so as to satisfy heavy-quark spin symmetry. The meson-meson scattering problem in coupled channels with finite-temperature corrections is solved in a self-consistent manner. Our results show that the masses of the ground-state charmed mesons $D(0^-)$ and $D_s(1^-)$ decrease in a pionic environment at $T\neq 0$ and they acquire a substantial width. As a consequence, the behaviour of excited mesonic states (i.e. $D_{s0}^*(2317)^\pm$ and $D_0^*(2300)^{0,\pm}$), generated dynamically in our heavy-light molecular model, is also modified at $T\neq 0$. The aim is to test our results against Lattice QCD calculations in the future.

• Roy Glauber and asymptotic diffraction theory

  Per Osland

  SciPost Phys. Proc. 3, 016 (2020) · published 25 February 2020 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  This is a review of Glauber's asymptotic diffraction theory, in which diffractive scattering is described in terms of interference between semiclassical amplitudes, resulting from a stationary-phase approximation. Typically two such amplitudes are sufficient to accurately describe elastic scattering, but the stationary points are located at complex values of the impact parameter. Their separation controls the interference pattern, and their offsets from the real axis determine the overall fall-off with momentum transfer. Asymptotically, at large momentum transfers, the stationary points move towards singularities of the profile function. I also include some reminiscences from our collaboration.

• Generalized parton distribution functions of $\rho$ meson

  Baodong Sun, Yubing Dong

  SciPost Phys. Proc. 3, 014 (2020) · published 25 February 2020 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We report our recent calculations for the generalized parton distribution functions of the $\rho$ meson with the help of a light-front constituent quark model. The electromagnetic form factors and structure functions of the system are given. Moreover, we also show our results for its gravitational form factors (or energy-momentum tensor form factors) and for other mechanical properties, like its mass distributions, pressures, share-forces, and $D-$term.

  1 citation

• The charged $Z_c$ and $Z_b$ structures in a constituent quark model approach

  Pablo Garcia Ortega, Jorge Segovia, David Rodriguez Entem and Francisco Fernández

  SciPost Phys. Proc. 3, 013 (2020) · published 25 February 2020 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  The nature of the recently discovered $Z_c$ and $Z_b$ structures is intriguing. Their charge forces its minimal quark content to be $Q\bar Q q\bar q$ (where $Q=\{c,b\}$ and $q=\{u,d\}$). In this work we perform a molecular coupled-channels calculation of the $I^G(J^{PC})=1^+(1^{+-})$ charm and bottom sectors in the framework of a constituent quark model which satisfactorily describes a wide range of properties of (non-)conventional hadrons containing heavy quarks. All the relevant channels are included for each sector, i.e.: The $D^{(\ast)}\bar D^{\ast}+h.c.$, $\pi J/\psi$ and $\rho\eta_c$ channels for the $Z_c$ and $B^{(\ast)}B^{\ast}$ and $\Upsilon(nS)\pi$ ($n=1,2,3$) channels for the $Z_b$ analysis. Possible structures of these resonances will be discussed

  1 citation

• Theoretical study of deeply virtual Compton scattering off $^4$He

  Sara Fucini, Sergio Scopetta, Michele Viviani

  SciPost Phys. Proc. 3, 012 (2020) · published 24 February 2020 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  An interesting breakthrough in understanding the elusive inner content of nuclear systems in terms of partonic degrees of freedom is represented by deeply virtual Compton scattering processes. In such a way, tomographic view of nuclei and bound nucleons in coordinate space could be achieved for the first time. Moreover, nowadays experimental results for such a process considering $^4$He targets recently released at Jefferson Lab are available. In this talk, the recent results of our rigorous Impulse Approximation for DVCS off $^4$He, in terms of state-of-the-art models of the nuclear spectral function and of the parton structure of the bound proton, able to explain present data, has been shown.

  1 citation

• Strangeness neutrality and QCD thermodynamics

  Wei-jie Fu, Jan M. Pawlowski, Fabian Rennecke

  SciPost Phys. Core 2, 002 (2020) · published 20 February 2020 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Since the incident nuclei in heavy-ion collisions do not carry strangeness, the global net strangeness of the detected hadrons has to vanish. We investigate the impact of strangeness neutrality on the phase structure and thermodynamics of QCD at finite baryon and strangeness chemical potential. To this end, we study the low-energy sector of QCD within a Polyakov loop enhanced quark-meson effective theory with 2+1 dynamical quark flavors. Non-perturbative quantum, thermal, and density fluctuations are taken into account with the functional renormalization group. We show that the impact of strangeness neutrality on thermodynamic quantities such as the equation of state is sizable.

  21 citations

• A global view of the off-shell Higgs portal

  Maximilian Ruhdorfer, Ennio Salvioni, Andreas Weiler

  SciPost Phys. 8, 027 (2020) · published 12 February 2020 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We study for the first time the collider reach on the derivative Higgs portal, the leading effective interaction that couples a pseudo Nambu-Goldstone boson (pNGB) scalar Dark Matter to the Standard Model. We focus on Dark Matter pair production through an off-shell Higgs boson, which is analyzed in the vector boson fusion channel. A variety of future high-energy lepton colliders as well as hadron colliders are considered, including CLIC, a muon collider, the High-Luminosity and High-Energy versions of the LHC, and FCC-hh. Implications on the parameter space of pNGB Dark Matter are discussed. In addition, we give improved and extended results for the collider reach on the marginal Higgs portal, under the assumption that the new scalars escape the detector, as motivated by a variety of beyond the Standard Model scenarios.

  44 citations