Factorization breaking in high-transverse-momentum charged-hadron production at the Tevatron?

Abstract

We compare the transverse momentum (p_T) distribution of inclusive light-charged-particle production measured by the CDF Collaboration at the Fermilab Tevatron with the theoretical prediction evaluated at next-to-leading order in quantum chromodynamics (QCD) using fragmentation functions recently determined through a global data fit. While, in the lower p_T range, the data agree with the prediction within the theoretical error or slightly undershoot it, they significantly exceed it in the upper p_T range, by several orders of magnitude at the largest values of p_T, where perturbation theory should be most reliable. This disagreement is too large to be remedied by introducing additional produced particles into the calculation, and potentially challenges the validity of the factorization theorem on which the parton model of QCD relies. Clearly, a breakdown of the factorization theorem, being a fundamental property of QCD, would be extremely difficult to understand.

9 pages, 5 figures; discussion extended, references added; accepted for publication in Physical Review Letters

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Cited by in corpus (8)

• Tuning Monte Carlo Generators: The Perugia Tunes
• Confronting current NLO parton fragmentation functions with inclusive charged-particle spectra at hadron colliders
• Inclusive Hadron Production in the CERN-LHC Era
• Instanton effects on the heavy-quark static potential
• A Very High Momentum Particle Identification Detector
• Odd Tracks at Hadron Colliders
• A note on the CDF high-p_t charged particle excess
• Convoluting jet spectra with fragmentation functions: a cross-check of the charged particle p_T spectrum