Parton Distributions: Progress and Challenges

Abstract

We briefly discuss recent research on the spin-averaged parton densities of the proton, focusing on some aspects relevant to hard processes at the LHC. Specifically, after recalling the basic framework and the need for higher-order calculations, we address the evolution equations governing the scale dependence of the parton distributions and their solution, schemes for initial conditions and the inclusion of heavy quarks, recent progress on fits to data, and future high-precision constraints from LHC measurements.

12 pages, LaTeX, 12 figures. Plenary talk presented at DIS 2007, Munich, April 2007. To appear in the proceedings

References in corpus (2)

• Update of Parton Distributions at NNLO
• Parton Distributions for LO Calculations

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• Higher-order threshold resummation for semi-inclusive e^+e^- annihilation
• Perturbative stability of the QCD predictions for the ratio $R=F_L/F_T$ and azimuthal asymmetry in heavy-quark leptoproduction