An Event Generator for Deep Inelastic Scattering within the POWHEG BOX Framework

Abstract

The ultimate goal of the field of particle physics is to find a theory that fully describes nature. The Standard Model (SM) comes closest to achieve this goal. It successfully describes many phenomena, but it fails to explain everything. A lot of resources are spent to expand the SM to a more com- plete theory. Therefore, the predictions of the SM must be known with very high precision in order to detect its limitations. Experiments with particle accelerators have proven to be promising in the past to detect new physics, such as the latest discovery of the Higgs boson. In the near future, a new particle accelerator, the Electron-Ion Collider (EIC), will be built, requiring theoretical high-precision predictions. This work presents a new event generator for deep inelastic scattering, the main process at the EIC. With this new tool, events can be generated at next-to leading order in quantum chromodynamics and matched to parton showers. It is an extension to the POWHEG BOX framework, and hence uses the positive weight hardest emission generator (POWHEG) method. Initially, the POWHEG BOX framework was designed for hadron-hadron collisions. The different kinematics of lepton-hadron collisions require substantial changes to the existing implementations present in the POWHEG BOX. Specifically, the momentum mappings in the implementation of the Frixione, Kunszt and Signer (FKS) subtraction mechanism are reworked. Theory predictions, obtained from the new event generator, are presented and compared to data collected at Hadron-Elektron-Ring-Anlage (HERA). Additionally, a phenomenological study for the experimental setup of the future EIC is shown. The developed event generator provides a starting point for future studies of other processes observable at the EIC that share similar kinematic features.