Event generation at MEPS@NLO accuracy in neutral and charged current DIS at the EIC

TL;DR

This paper provides advanced hadron-level predictions for neutral and charged current deep-inelastic scattering at the Electron-Ion Collider, incorporating next-to-leading-order accuracy and multileg merging techniques to improve theoretical precision.

Contribution

It introduces the first application of NLO merging to charged current DIS and offers comprehensive predictions including perturbative and nonperturbative uncertainties.

Findings

Large corrections at small virtualities and Bjorken-x captured by merging.

Nonperturbative effects are significant at low Q^2 and peak regions.

Consistent NLO merging improves DIS observable predictions.

Abstract

We present state-of-the-art hadron-level predictions for the deep-inelastic scat- tering process at next-to-leading-order precision for several multiplicities, con- sistently merged in one sample. For the first time at this level of accuracy, we consider both neutral and charged current deep-inelastic scattering at the Electron-Ion Collider, and present the first application of consistent next-to- leading-order merging to charged current deep-inelastic scattering in general. We critically examine inclusive predictions using multileg merging techniques, contrasting perturbative and nonperturbative uncertainties. Further, we study typical kinematic deep-inelastic scattering observables as well as jet measure- ments and 1-jettiness with realistic cuts implied by expected and past detector resolution. On the perturbative side, we see large corrections toward small vir- tualities and Bjorken-x, which can be captured by higher-multiplicity matrix elements and the merging procedure. Nonperturbative effects, while negligible in most jet observables, can reach similar size as the perturbative uncertainties around the peak of the 1-jettiness distributions especially at low values of $Q^2$ .