Paper detail

The GS09 double parton distribution functions

It is anticipated that hard double parton scattering (DPS) will occur frequently in the collisions of the LHC, producing interesting signals and significant backgrounds to certain single scattering processes. In order to make theoretical predictions of double scattering rates and properties, the double parton distributions (dPDFs) D_p^{j_1j_2}(x_1,x_2;Q_A,Q_B) are required. We discuss the first publicly available set of equal-scale (Q_A=Q_B) leading order dPDFs -- the GS09 dPDFs. A brief account is given describing how pQCD evolution effects and sum rule constraints (the latter derived by us) have been incorporated into this set of dPDFs. We then present a summary of a phenomenological investigation into same-sign W pair production conducted using GS09. In this, the DPS signal produced using GS09 is compared with that obtained using simple products of single PDFs multiplied by (1-x_1-x_2)^n, and the single scattering backgrounds (W+-W+-jj, di-boson and heavy flavour) are carefully calculated. It is found that the correlations in GS09 manifest themselves in non-trivial kinematic correlations between the W bosons. However, it is unlikely that these correlations will be measurable at the LHC in the near future owing to the fact that the background is significant even after cuts.