Computation of nuclear effects in MadGraph5_aMC@NLO at Next-to-Leading order accuracy

Anton Safronov

supervisor: Daniel Kikola

Automated perturbative computation of cross sections for hard processes (for example, charm and bottom quarks production) in nuclear proton+nucleus and nucleus+nucleus collisions at the next-to-leading (NLO) order will provide powerful tools for various applications, such as predictions for new experimental programs, the phenomenology of heavy-ion collisions, and the exploration of the LHC data. Such a goal can be achieved using MadGraph5 aMC@NLO, a well-established tool for automatically generating matrix elements for High Energy Physics processes, such as decays and 2→n scatterings, computations of cross sections, generation of hard events and their matching with event generators for High Energy Physics processes in elementary collisions. My project aims to extend MadGraph5 aMC@NLO capabilities by implementing computations for asymmetric (nuclear) collisions, for example, p+Pb, or Pb+W reactions. In the future, this new tool will be included in the virtual access NLOAccess (https://nloaccess.in2p3.fr) project within the integrated European initiative STRONG-2020.

In my talk, I will present the objectives of the NLOAccess initiative and the status of my project, including results for heavy flavour (charm, bottom and top quark) or SM bosons (H, Z) production in p+Pb collisions at the LHC.