Parton distribution function dependence of benchmark Standard Model total cross sections at the 7 TeV LHC

Abstract: We compare predictions for the W, Z, gg->H and t-tbar total cross sections at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), for a centre-of-mass energy of 7 TeV, using the most recent publicly available next-to-leading order and next-to-next-to-leading order parton distribution functions (PDFs) from all PDF fitting groups. In particular, we focus on the dependence on the different values of the strong coupling, alpha_S(M_Z^2), used by each group. We also perform a comparison of the relevant quark-antiquark and gluon-gluon luminosity functions. We make some comments on the recent PDF4LHC recommendations. Finally, we discuss the comparison of data and theory for W and Z cross sections at the LHC.