On the Impact of NMC Data on NLO and NNLO Parton Distributions and Higgs Production at the Tevatron and the LHC

TL;DR

This paper examines how different treatments of NMC data influence parton distribution functions and Higgs production predictions, finding minimal impact at NLO and NNLO, especially on Higgs cross-sections.

Contribution

It demonstrates that the treatment or removal of NMC data has negligible effect on parton distributions and Higgs production at NNLO within current uncertainties.

Findings

No effect on parton distributions at NLO from NMC data treatment.

Less than one sigma effect at NNLO from NMC data treatment.

Higgs production cross-section remains very stable regardless of NMC data handling.

Abstract

We discuss the impact of the treatment of NMC structure function data on parton distributions in the context of the NNPDF2.1 global PDF determination at NLO and NNLO. We show that the way these data are treated, and even their complete removal, has no effect on parton distributions at NLO, and at NNLO has an effect which is below one sigma. In particular, the Higgs production cross-section in the gluon fusion channel is very stable.