Parton Distribution Functions for Discovery Physics at the LHC

Abstract

At the LHC we are colliding protons, but it is not the protons that are doing the interacting. It is their constituents the quarks, antiquarks and gluons-collectively known as partons. We need to know how what fractional momentum of the proton each of these partons takes at the energy scale of LHC collisions, in order to understand LHC physics. Such parton momentum distributions are known as PDFs (Parton Distribution Functions) and are a field of study in their own right. However, it is now the case that the uncertainties on PDFs are a major contributor to the background to the discovery of physics Beyond the Standard Model (BSM). Firstly in searches at the highest energy scales of a few TeV and secondly in precision measurements of Standard Model (SM) parameters such as the mass of the W-boson, $m_W$, or the weak mixing angle, $sin^2\theta_W$, which can provide indirect evidence for BSM physics in their deviations from SM values.