Speaker
Description
Indirect searches for new physics increasingly rely on precise theoretical predictions in the high-energy tails of the distributions, with Parton Distribution Functions (PDFs) being one of the main bottlenecks.
In this talk, I explore the interplay between the fits of Standard Model Effective Field Theory (SMEFT) Wilson coefficients and PDFs in two key sectors at the LHC, the Drell-Yan and the top sector. I explore two complementary strategies for robust new physics searches, aimed to mitigate the risk of absorbing new physics effects into the PDF determination and to better constrain PDFs in the large Bjorken-$x$ region : (i) fitting the PDFs and SMEFT parameters simultaneously, and (ii) fitting them separately with a “conservative” determination of the PDFs, using only observables that can safely be considered SM–like. I compare both methodologies in controlled closure tests in a realistic High-Luminosity LHC (HL-LHC) scenario. I conclude by proposing best-practice recommendations for robust indirect new physics searches in the Drell-Yan and top sectors at hadron colliders.
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