High twist contribution to the longitudinal structure function FLF_L at high xx

We performed NLO QCD fit of combined SLAC/BCDMS/NMC DIS data at high $x$. Model independent x-shape of high twist contribution to structure function $F_L$ is extracted. Twist-4 contribution is found to be in fair agreement with the predictions of infrared renormalon model. Twist-6 contribution exhibits weak tendency to negative values, although in the whole is compatible with zero within errors.Comment: 14 pages, LATEX, 9 figures (EPS

Statistical properties of the estimator using covariance matrix

The statistical properties of estimator using covariance matrix for the account of point-to-point correlations due to systematic errors are analyzed. It is shown that the covariance matrix estimator (CME) is consistent for the realistic cases (when systematic errors on the fitted parameters are not extremely large comparing with the statistical ones) and its dispersion is always smaller, than the dispersion of the simplified $\chi^2$ estimator applied to the correlated data. The CME bias is negligible for the realistic cases if the covariance matrix is calculated during the fit iteratively using the parameter estimator itself. Analytical formula for the covariance matrix inversion allows to perform fast and precise calculations even for very large data sets. All this allows for efficient use of the CME in the global fits.Comment: 12 pages, LATEX, 2 figures (EPS

Strange sea determination from collider data

We consider determinations of the strange sea in the nucleon based on the QCD analyses of data collected at the LHC with focus on the recent high-statistics ATLAS measurement of the $W^\pm$- and $Z$-boson production. We study the effect of different functional forms for parameterization of the parton distribution functions and the combination of various data sets in the analysis. We compare to earlier strange sea determinations and discuss ways to improve them in the future.Comment: 13 pages, 7 figure