17–18 Sept 2026
Lund University, Physics Department
Europe/Stockholm timezone

Establishing Center-of-Mass Energy Dependence for Primordial Transverse Momentum in PYTHIA

17 Sept 2026, 11:45
15m
A-salen (L317) (Lund University, Physics Department)

A-salen (L317)

Lund University, Physics Department

Sölvegatan 14, Lund

Speaker

Ioannis Polychronakos (Lund University)

Description

The quarks and gluons inside a proton are expected to have an intrinsic momentum proportional to $\Lambda_{QCD}$ due to Fermi motion. In Monte Carlo event generators, primordial $k_T$ acts as an effective parameter that absorbs a broader range of unresolved physics, such as soft emissions below the parton shower cut-off. We present the evolution of the primordial $k_T$ width as a function of the hard scattering scale ($Q$) and the center of mass energy ($\sqrt{s}$) extracted by systematically tuning it to Drell-Yan dilepton production data. We demonstrate the need for a new parametrization for primordial $k_T$ and take steps towards a new global and more principled tune for PYTHIA 8.

Author

Ioannis Polychronakos (Lund University)

Co-author

Christian Bierlich (Lund University (SE))

Presentation materials