Jet Fragmentation at the LHC

Run II at the LHC is pushing the energy and luminosity frontiers, and challenging the theory community to develop new tools both to increase the precision of our predictions and to expand their scope to match measurements of a more diverse set of observables. In this work, we describe the use of a new class of non-perturbative functions called Generalized Fragmentation Functions (GFFs) as a step towards these goals. This theoretical framework enables the calculation of a broad set of semi-inclusive jet observables. We explore known observables whose distributions can now be calculated using GFFs, and construct a new class of non-associative "fractal observables" which can be described with GFFs. As an important application, we calculate the spectrum of track-assisted mass, which can be measured experimentally with much better angular resolution than ordinary jet mass, including the effect of Soft-Drop grooming. In order to make connections to frameworks for describing Quantum Chromodynamics, we discuss the relationship between GFFs and the Generating Functional Approach (GFA).

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Physics.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2018

Author dc:creator

• Elder, Benjamin T. (Benjamin Tyler)

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Jesse D. Thaler.

• Physics.

Statement dc:rights

• MIT theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed, downloaded, or printed from this source but further reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/119105

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/119105