Correlation and combination of sets of parton distributions

Richard D. Ball; Stefano Forte; Roy Stegeman

doi:10.1140/epjc/s10052-021-09863-6

Correlation and combination of sets of parton distributions

Richard D. Ball
, Stefano Forte^*
, Roy Stegeman

^*Corresponding author for this work

School of Physics and Astronomy

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

We study the correlation between different sets of parton distributions (PDFs). Specifically, viewing different PDF sets as distinct determinations, generally correlated, of the same underlying physical quantity, we examine the
extent to which the correlation between them is due to the underlying data. We do this both for pairs of PDF sets determined using a given fixed methodology, and between sets determined using different methodologies. We show that cor-
relations have a sizable component that is not due to the underlying data, because the data do not determine the PDFs uniquely. We show that the data-driven correlations can be used to assess the efficiency of methodologies used for PDF
determination. We also show that the use of data-driven correlations for the combination of different PDFs into a joint set can lead to inconsistent results, and thus that the statistical combination used in constructing the widely used
PDF4LHC15 PDF set remains the most reliable method.

Original language	English
Article number	1046
Pages (from-to)	1-18
Number of pages	18
Journal	The European Physical Journal C
Volume	81
Issue number	11
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1140/epjc/s10052-021-09863-6
Publication status	Published - 30 Nov 2021

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10.1140/epjc/s10052-021-09863-6Licence: Creative Commons: Attribution (CC-BY)

Particle Theory at the Higgs Centre
Ball, R. (Principal Investigator), Boyle, P. (Co-investigator), Del Debbio, L. (Co-investigator), Gardi, E. (Co-investigator), Horsley, R. (Co-investigator), Kennedy, A. (Co-investigator), O'Connell, D. (Co-investigator), Smillie, J. (Co-investigator) & Zwicky, R. (Co-investigator)
STFC
1/10/17 → 30/09/21
Project: Research

Cite this

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title = "Correlation and combination of sets of parton distributions",

abstract = "We study the correlation between different sets of parton distributions (PDFs). Specifically, viewing different PDF sets as distinct determinations, generally correlated, of the same underlying physical quantity, we examine the extent to which the correlation between them is due to the underlying data. We do this both for pairs of PDF sets determined using a given fixed methodology, and between sets determined using different methodologies. We show that cor- relations have a sizable component that is not due to the underlying data, because the data do not determine the PDFs uniquely. We show that the data-driven correlations can be used to assess the efficiency of methodologies used for PDF determination. We also show that the use of data-driven correlations for the combination of different PDFs into a joint set can lead to inconsistent results, and thus that the statistical combination used in constructing the widely used PDF4LHC15 PDF set remains the most reliable method.",

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AU - Stegeman, Roy

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AB - We study the correlation between different sets of parton distributions (PDFs). Specifically, viewing different PDF sets as distinct determinations, generally correlated, of the same underlying physical quantity, we examine the extent to which the correlation between them is due to the underlying data. We do this both for pairs of PDF sets determined using a given fixed methodology, and between sets determined using different methodologies. We show that cor- relations have a sizable component that is not due to the underlying data, because the data do not determine the PDFs uniquely. We show that the data-driven correlations can be used to assess the efficiency of methodologies used for PDF determination. We also show that the use of data-driven correlations for the combination of different PDFs into a joint set can lead to inconsistent results, and thus that the statistical combination used in constructing the widely used PDF4LHC15 PDF set remains the most reliable method.

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DO - 10.1140/epjc/s10052-021-09863-6

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SP - 1

EP - 18

JO - The European Physical Journal C

JF - The European Physical Journal C

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Correlation and combination of sets of parton distributions

Abstract

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Particle Theory at the Higgs Centre

Cite this