We present LO, NLO and NNLO sets of parton distribution functions (PDFs) of the proton determined from global analyses of the available hard scattering data. These MMHT2014 PDFs supersede the ‘MSTW2008’ parton sets, but they are obtained within the same basic framework. We include a variety of new data sets, from the LHC, updated Tevatron data and the HERA combined H1 and ZEUS data on the total and charm structure functions. We also improve the theoretical framework of the previous analysis. These new PDFs are compared to the ‘MSTW2008’ parton sets. In most cases the PDFs, and the predictions, are within one standard deviation of those of MSTW2008. The major changes are the valence quark difference at small due to an improved parameterisation and, to a lesser extent, the strange quark PDF due to the effect of certain LHC data and a better treatment of the branching ratio. We compare our MMHT PDF sets with those of other collaborations; in particular with the NNPDF3.0 sets, which are contemporary with the present analysis.

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We present the new MSHT20 set of parton distribution functions (PDFs) of the proton, determined from global analyses of the available hard scattering data. The PDFs are made available at NNLO, NLO, and LO, and supersede the MMHT14 sets. They are obtained using the same basic framework, but the parameterisation is now adapted and extended, and there are 32 pairs of eigenvector PDFs. We also include a large number of new data sets: from the final HERA combined data on total and heavy flavour structure functions, to final Tevatron data, and in particular a significant number of new LHC 7 and 8 TeV data sets on vector boson production, inclusive jets and top quark distributions. We include up to NNLO QCD corrections for all data sets that play a major role in the fit, and NLO EW corrections where relevant. We find that these updates have an important impact on the PDFs, and for the first time the NNLO fit is strongly favoured over the NLO, reflecting the wider range and in particular increased precision of data included in the fit. There are some changes to central values and a significant reduction in the uncertainties of the PDFs in many, though not all, cases. Nonetheless, the PDFs and the resulting predictions are generally within one standard deviation of the MMHT14 results. The major changes are the $$u-d$$ u - d valence quark difference at small x, due to the improved parameterisation and new precise data, the $${\bar{d}}, {\bar{u}}$$ d ¯ , u ¯ difference at small x, due to a much improved parameterisation, and the strange quark PDF due to the effect of LHC W, Z data and inclusion of new NNLO corrections for dimuon production in neutrino DIS. We discuss the phenomenological impact of our results, and in general find reduced uncertainties in predictions for processes such as Higgs, top quark pair and W, Z production at post LHC Run-II energies.

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In the framework of quantum chromodynamics (QCD), parton distribution functions (PDFs) quantify how the momentum and spin of a hadron are divided among its quark and gluon constituents. Two main approaches exist to determine PDFs. The first approach, based on QCD factorization theorems, realizes a QCD analysis of a suitable set of hard-scattering measurements, often using a variety of hadronic observables. The second approach, based on first-principle operator definitions of PDFs, uses lattice QCD to compute directly some PDF-related quantities, such as their moments. Motivated by recent progress in both approaches, in this document we present an overview of lattice-QCD and globalanalysis techniques used to determine unpolarized and polarized proton PDFs and their moments. We provide benchmark numbers to validate present and future lattice-QCD calculations and we illustrate how they could be used to reduce the PDF uncertainties in current unpolarized and polarized global analyses. This document represents a first step towards establishing a common language between the two communities, to foster dialogue and to further improve our knowledge of PDFs.The detailed understanding of the inner structure of nucleons is an active research field with phenomenological implications in high-energy, hadron, nuclear and astroparticle physics. Within quantum chromodynamics (QCD), information on this structure -specifically on how the nucleon's momentum and spin are divided among quarks and gluons -is encoded in parton distribution functions (PDFs).There exist two main methods to determine PDFs. 1 The first method is the global QCD analysis [3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12]. It is based on QCD factorization of physical observables, i.e. the fact that a class of hard-scattering cross-sections can be expressed as a convolution between short-distance, perturbative, matrix elements and long-distance, nonperturbative, PDFs. By combining a variety of available hard-scattering experimental data with state-of-the-art perturbative calculations, complete PDF sets, including the gluon and various combinations of quark flavors, are currently determined for protons, in both the unpolarized [13][14][15][16][17] and the polarized [18][19][20][21] case.Recent progress in global QCD analyses has been driven, on the one hand, by the increasing availability of a wealth of high-precision measurements from Jefferson Lab, HERA, RHIC, the Tevatron and the LHC and, on the other hand, by the advancement in perturbative calculations of QCD and electroweak (EW) higher-order corrections. Parton distributions are now determined with unprecedented precision, in many cases at the few-percent level. A paradigmatic illustration of this progress is provided by both the unpolarized and polarized gluon PDFs, which were affected by rather large uncertainties until recently, due to the limited experimental information available. In the unpolarized case, the gluon PDF is now constrained quite accurately from small to large x thanks to the inclusion of processes such a...