Global parton distributions with nuclear and finite-Q^2 corrections

TL;DR

This paper introduces three new sets of next-to-leading order parton distribution functions that incorporate nuclear and finite-Q^2 corrections, improving the accuracy and uncertainty estimates for PDFs used in high-energy physics analyses.

Contribution

The authors provide three new PDF sets with nuclear and target mass corrections, offering a more realistic uncertainty range, especially for the d quark distribution, and include user-friendly error sets.

Findings

Three new NLO PDF sets with nuclear corrections.

Enhanced uncertainty estimates for the d quark PDF.

Inclusion of target mass and higher twist corrections.

Abstract

We present three new sets of next-to-leading order parton distribution functions (PDFs) determined by global fits to a wide variety of data for hard scattering processes. The analysis includes target mass and higher twist corrections needed for the description of deep inelastic scattering data at large x and low Q^2, and nuclear corrections for deuterium targets. The PDF sets correspond to three different models for the nuclear effects, and provide a more realistic uncertainty range for the d quark PDF, in particular, compared with previous fits. We describe the PDF error sets for each choice of the nuclear corrections, and provide a user interface for utilizing the distributions.