The Standard Model encodes our present knowledge of high energy particle physics. Developed over 40 years, starting from the 1960s, the Standard Model has proven remarkably successful in describing observations from a wide variety of experiments carried out at different particle accelerators, spanning a wide range of increasing energies. The discovery of the Higgs boson by the ATLAS and CMS experiments at the Large Hadron Collider has completed the search for the particles predicted by the Standard Model.
Parton Distribution Functions, which encode the information on how quarks and gluons are bound inside hadrons, are one of the fundamental ingredients of theoretical predictions for observables at hadron colliders. Indeed they are often the dominant source of uncertainties on predictions for precision observables at the LHC.
In particular, the NEXTGENPDF project is rooted in the development of the so-called NNPDF methodology for the determination of Parton Distribution Functions, which makes use of advanced statistical methods and artificial intelligence techniques.
The pillars of the NNPDF methodology are:
- the use of a large dataset based on results from different experiments, including the most recent PDF sensitive results from the ATLAS, CMS and LHCb experiments at the LHC;
- the use of the most advanced theoretical predictions available for the observables included in the analysis;
- the use of advanced statistical learning methods (for example Artificial Neural Networks and Monte Carlo techniques) for performing an unbiased and reliable determination of Parton Distribution Functions and their associated uncertainties.
The goal of the NEXTGENPDF project is to make use of all the relevant experimental information from the LHC experiments, the most accurate theoretical predictions, innovative techniques for estimation of theoretical uncertainties and advanced statistical inference methodologies to deliver new sets of Parton Distribution Functions that match the precision requirements of the experiments at the LHC Run II and at future colliders, maximizing their potential for discoveries of new physics.
