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Heavy-quark mass dependence in global PDF analyses and 3- and 4-flavour parton distributions

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Abstract

We study the sensitivity of our recent MSTW 2008 NLO and NNLO PDF analyses to the values of the charm- and bottom-quark masses, and we provide additional public PDF sets for a wide range of these heavy-quark masses. We quantify the impact of varying m c and m b on the cross sections for W, Z and Higgs production at the Tevatron and the LHC. We generate 3- and 4-flavour versions of the (5-flavour) MSTW 2008 PDFs by evolving the input PDFs and α S determined from fits in the 5-flavour scheme, including the eigenvector PDF sets necessary for calculation of PDF uncertainties. As an example of their use, we study the difference in the Z total cross sections at the Tevatron and LHC in the 4- and 5-flavour schemes. Significant differences are found, illustrating the need to resum large logarithms in \(Q^{2}/m_{b}^{2}\) by using the 5-flavour scheme. The 4-flavour scheme is still necessary, however, if cuts are imposed on associated (massive) b-quarks, as is the case for the experimental measurement of \(Zb\bar{b}\) production and similar processes.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute for Particle Physics Phenomenology, University of Durham, Durham, DH1 3LE, UK

    A. D. Martin

  2. Cavendish Laboratory, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, CB3 0HE, UK

    W. J. Stirling

  3. Department of Physics and Astronomy, University College London, London, WC1E 6BT, UK

    R. S. Thorne

  4. Theory Group, Physics Department, CERN, 1211, Geneva 23, Switzerland

    G. Watt

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  1. A. D. Martin
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Martin, A.D., Stirling, W.J., Thorne, R.S. et al. Heavy-quark mass dependence in global PDF analyses and 3- and 4-flavour parton distributions. Eur. Phys. J. C 70, 51–72 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1140/epjc/s10052-010-1462-8

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