Why αs cannot be determined from hadronic processes without simultaneously determining the parton distributions

We show that any determination of the strong coupling α s from a process which depends on parton distributions, such as hadronic processes or deep-inelastic scattering, generally does not lead to a correct result unless the parton distributions (PDFs) are determined simultaneously along with α s . W...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The European physical journal. C, Particles and fields Particles and fields, 2020-03, Vol.80 (3), Article 182
Main Authors: Forte, Stefano, Kassabov, Zahari
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Astronomy
Astrophysics and Cosmology
Elementary Particles
Hadrons
Heavy Ions
Inelastic scattering
Measurement Science and Instrumentation
Nuclear Energy
Nuclear Physics
Partons
Physics
Physics and Astronomy
Quantum Field Theories
Quantum Field Theory
Regular Article - Theoretical Physics
String Theory
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Summary:We show that any determination of the strong coupling α s from a process which depends on parton distributions, such as hadronic processes or deep-inelastic scattering, generally does not lead to a correct result unless the parton distributions (PDFs) are determined simultaneously along with α s . We establish the result by first showing an explicit example, and then arguing that the example is representative of a generic situation which we explain using models for the shape of equal χ 2 contours in the joint space of α s and the PDF parameters.
ISSN:1434-6044
1434-6052
DOI:10.1140/epjc/s10052-020-7748-6