MSc. Alwin Schander and MSc. Fateme Almaksusi

From Hard Scattering to Jets: Modelling Proton-Proton Collisions

High-energy hadron collisions involve complex multi-scale QCD dynamics. While QCD describes the underlying interactions, fully perturbative calculations of exclusive hadronic final states are not possible due to multiple soft and collinear emissions and the non-perturbative nature of confinement. Modern Monte Carlo event generators therefore combine perturbative calculations with phenomenological models.

In this talk we review the stages of a proton-proton collision, beginning with the hard scattering process, followed by parton showers that describe QCD radiation. We then discuss multiparton interactions and beam remnants, which model the underlying event in proton-proton collisions. Next, we describe hadronization, the non-perturbative process that converts colored partons into observable hadrons. Finally, we introduce jet algorithms, which reconstruct jets from final-state particles for experimental analyses.