Exploring the impact of high-precision top-quark pair production data on the structure of the proton at the LHC

The impact of recent LHC top-quark pair production single differential cross section measurements at 13 TeV collision energy on the structure of the proton is explored. In particular, the impact of these high-precision data on the gluon and other parton distribution functions (PDFs) of the proton at intermediate and large partonic momentum fraction <a:math xmlns:a="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><a:mi>x</a:mi></a:math> is analyzed. This study extends the CT18 global analysis framework to include these new data. The interplay between top-quark pair and inclusive jet production as well as other processes at the LHC, is studied. In addition, a study of the impact of scale choice on the theory description of the new 13 TeV <c:math xmlns:c="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><c:mi>t</c:mi><c:mover accent="true"><c:mi>t</c:mi><c:mo stretchy="false">¯</c:mo></c:mover></c:math> measurements is performed. Published by the American Physical Society 2024