Deep Inelastic Scattering: CGC at NLO Meets Data
by
Small Seminar Room
Bldg 510
At high energies, the rapid growth of gluon densities inside hadrons and nuclei is expected to be tamed by non-linear QCD dynamics, leading to the phenomenon of gluon saturation. The Color Glass Condensate (CGC) effective theory provides a framework for describing this regime. While many phenomenological applications have so far relied on leading-order calculations, substantial progress has recently been made towards next-to-leading order (NLO) precision.
In this talk, I review recent developments in NLO CGC phenomenology. I discuss the first global analyses of HERA deep inelastic scattering data using NLO impact factors together with NLO small-$x$ evolution, and show that a simultaneous description of inclusive and charm structure-function data can be achieved. I also present recent advances in diffractive DIS, including the implementation of the numerically dominant NLO contributions and the identification of a sizable soft-quark contribution that has been neglected in previous phenomenological studies. These results mark an important step toward precision studies of gluon saturation and future analyses of Electron-Ion Collider data.
Prithwish Tribedy