Statistical issues in the parton distribution analysis of the Tevatron jet data

Abstract

We analyse a tension between the D0 and CDF inclusive jet data and the perturbative QCD calculations, which are based on the ABKM09 and ABM11 parton distribution functions (PDFs) within the nuisance parameter framework. Particular attention is paid on the uncertainties in the nuisance parameters due to the data fluctuations and the PDF errors. We show that with account of these uncertainties the nuisance parameters do not demonstrate a statistically significant excess. A statistical bias of the estimator based on the nuisance parameters is also discussed.