Progress in top-quark pair production cross section calculations and impact on parton distribution functions of the proton

Abstract

We discuss the impact of eligible top-quark pair production differential cross-section measurements at the LHC with a collision energy of 13 TeV on the parton distribution functions (PDFs) of the proton as well as the impact of approximate next-to-next-to-next-to-leading order (aN$^3$LO) QCD corrections combined with next-to-leading order (NLO) electroweak (EW) corrections on $t\bar t$ observables. We illustrate the effects on the gluon PDF at large $x$ from an optimal baseline selection of data in NNLO global fits, and show comparisons between the theory prediction for $t\bar t$ total and differential cross sections at aN$^3$LO QCD combined with NLO EW and recent measurements from the ATLAS and CMS collaborations at the LHC.