We compute the leading color, next-to-leading order QCD corrections to the dominant partonic channels for the production of a W boson in association with three jets at the Tevatron and the LHC. This is the first application of generalized unitarity for realistic one-loop calculations. The method performs well in this non-trivial test and offers great promise for the future.
We report on a technique for evaluating finite unitarity cut for one-loop amplitudes in gauge theories, and discuss its application to the cut-constructible part of six-gluon amplitude in QCD.
In this article we describe simulations of the hadronic decay of Higgs bosons produced in association with vector bosons at linear and hadronic colliders. We use the Monte Carlo at next-to-leading-order MC@NLO matching prescription with the Herwig++ event generator to predict various spectra of the resulting b anti-b pairs and compare our results with leading order and matrix element correction predictions.
In this paper we present a complete next-to-leading order QCD calculation of the $χ_J$ ($^3P_J\; ;J=0,1,2$) hadronic decay width. We include the NLO colour-octet contribution, as defined in the Bodwin, Braaten and Lepage formalism. We extract an estimate of the colour-octet parameter \height\ from the charmonium decay data.
We present the NLO QCD corrections to diphoton plus jet production at hadron colliders. Our calculation includes contributions from the fragmentation of a hadronic jet into a highly energetic photon, and consequently allows the implementation of arbitrary infrared-safe photon isolation definitions. We compare different photon isolation criteria and perform a detailed study of the dependence of the diphoton plus jet cross section on the photon isolation parameters.
We present an NNLO-compatible subtraction scheme for computing QCD jet cross sections of hadron-initiated processes at NLO accuracy. The scheme is constructed specifically with those complications in mind, that emerge when extending the subtraction algorithm to next-to-next-to-leading order. It is therefore possible to embed the present scheme in a full NNLO computation without any modifications.
We present the next-to-leading-order (NLO) QCD corrections to the inclusive total cross section for the production of a Higgs boson in association with a top anti-top quark pair within the Standard Model at the Tevatron and the LHC.
We present results on the NLO (alpha_s^2) spectator-scattering corrections to the topological penguin amplitudes for charmless hadronic two-body B-decays in QCD factorization. The corrections can be sizable for the colour-suppressed electroweak penguin amplitudes alpha_{4,EW}^p but otherwise are numerically small. Our results explicitly demonstrate factorization at this order. To assess the phenomenological viability of the framework, we consider penguin-to-tree ratios in the penguin-dominated pi K system and find agreement to the expected precision (i.e., a power correction).
We present some preliminary results on the next-to-leading order calculation in QCD of quarkonium production cross sections in hadronic collisions. We will show that the NLO total cross sections for $P$-wave states produced at high energy are not reliable, due to the appearance of very large and negative contributions. We also discuss some issues related to the structure of final states in colour-octet production and to high-p_T fragmentation.
Presented are complete next-to-leading order electroweak (NLO EW) corrections to top-squark pair production at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) within the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model (MSSM). At this order, also effects from the interference of EW and QCD contributions have to be taken into account. Moreover, photon-induced top-squark production is considered as an additional partonic channel, which arises from the non-zero photon density in the proton.
The NLO cross section of the gluon fusion process is matched to parton showers in the MC@NLO approach. We work in the framework of MadGraph5_aMC@NLO and document the inclusion of the full quark-mass dependence in the SM as well as the state-of-the-art squark and gluino effects within the MSSM embodied in the program SusHi. The combination of the two programs is realized by a script which is publicly available and whose usage is detailed. We discuss the input cards and the relevant parameter switches. One of our focuses is on the shower scale which is specifically important for gluon-induced Hi…
We consider the production of squarks and gluinos at hadronic colliders. An overview over the class of processes is given. We investigate in detail the tree-level and higher order EW contributions to the cross sections. Special care has to be taken to obtain infrared finite observables. We study numerically stop--anti-stop and squark--gluino production at the LHC.
We study the $CP$-violating, $|ΔS| =1$ parameter $\varepsilon '/\varepsilon$ by computing the hadronic matrix elements in the chiral quark model. We estimate the coefficients of the next-to-leading order terms in the chiral expansion that correspond to the operators $Q_6$ and $Q_{11}$. We consider the impact of these corrections on the value of $\varepsilon '/\varepsilon$. We also investigate the possibility that the chiral quark model might drastically reduce the dimensional regularization $γ_5$-scheme dependence of current evaluations of $\varepsilon '/\varepsilon$.
With an emphasis on unitarity and CPT requirements, we study the inclusion of CP-violating processes in baryogenesis at next-to-leading order, particularly those involving the top Yukawa interaction in leptogenesis. We show that there are more contributions than previously considered, but also important cancellations. Some of these involve the interference of connected with disconnected diagrams. We also discuss on the application of the Kinoshita-Lee-Nauenberg theorem to treat the infrared divergences that are common at next-to-leading order. Finally, we calculate the CP asymmetry in the thre…
The doubly-polarized production of $W^\pm Z$ pairs at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is presented at next-to-leading order (NLO) accuracy both for the electroweak (EW) and QCD corrections, including a detailed description of the calculational method using the double-pole approximation. Numerical results at the 13 TeV LHC are presented in particular for the $W^- Z$ case in the $e^-\barν_e μ^+μ^-$ channel using ATLAS fiducial cuts and for polarized distributions defined in the $WZ$ center-of-mass system. The NLO EW corrections relative to the NLO QCD predictions are found to be smaller than $5\…
The production of a Higgs boson in association with a pair of top-antitop or bottom-antibottom quarks plays a very important role at both the Tevatron and the Large Hadron Collider. The theoretical prediction of the corresponding cross sections has been improved by including the complete next-to-leading order QCD corrections. After a brief description of the most relevant technical aspects of the calculation, we review the results obtained for both the Tevatron and the Large Hadron Collider
We analyse the consequences of t-channel unitarity for the photon hadronic cross sections. We show that gamma(*)p and gamma(*) gamma(*) elastic amplitudes must include the complex-j plane singularities associated with hadronic elastic amplitudes, and give the characteristics of possible new singularities. We also show that several different models of hadronic total cross sections can be used to predict the LEP data from the HERA measurements.
The antenna subtraction method for the computation of higher order corrections to jet observables and exclusive cross sections at collider experiments is extended to include hadronic initial states. In addition to the already known antenna subtraction with both radiators in the final state (final-final antennae), we introduce antenna subtractions with one or two radiators in the initial state (initial-final or initial-initial antennae). For those, we derive the phase space factorization and discuss the allowed phase space mappings at NLO and NNLO. We present integrated forms for all antenna fu…
Electron-positron annihilation into hadrons plus an energetic photon from initial state radiation allows the hadronic cross-section to be measured over a wide range of energies. The full next-to-leading order QED corrections for the cross-section for e^+ e^- annihilation into a real tagged photon and a virtual photon converting into hadrons are calculated where the tagged photon is radiated off the initial electron or positron. This includes virtual and soft photon corrections to the process e^+ e^- \to γ+γ^* and the emission of two real hard photons: e^+ e^- \to γ+ γ+ γ^*. A Monte Carlo gener…
We present new results for next-to-leading order (NLO) electroweak (EW) corrections to double polarization signals in the $WZ$ production channel at the LHC using the $e^+ν_e μ^+ μ^-$ final state. It is found that the EW corrections are most sizable in the transverse momentum distributions of the doubly longitudinal polarization, being around -10% compared to the NLO QCD prediction at $p_{T,e}\approx 200$ GeV, which is in the accessible energy range of the current LHC data.
In this talk I present the total cross sections, accurate at the NLO in QCD, for rare Standard-Model hadroproduction processes involving multi-Higgs-boson, multi-electroweak-boson and multi-top-quark final states. The comparison between cross sections at the LHC and at a future circular hadronic collider with up to 100 TeV centre-of-mass energy is detailed. Results relevant to the hadronic production of five electroweak bosons, and of a top-antitop pair in association with an electroweak vector boson and two jets are presented here for the first time with NLO accuracy.
We present results for the next-to-leading order QCD corrections to the production and semi-leptonic decays of a top quark pair in hadron collisions, retaining all spin correlations. To evaluate the virtual corrections, we employ generalized D-dimensional unitarity. The computation is implemented in a numerical program which allows detailed studies of ttbar-related observables at the Tevatron and the LHC.
We discuss how saturation of unitarity would change phase structure of hadronic matter at very high temperatures emphasizing the role of the vacuum state with spontaneously broken chiral symmetry.
The NLO contributions to some two-body charmless hadronic B meson decays, such as those from the QCD vertex corrections, the quark loops and the chromo-magnetic penguins, have been calculated in the pQCD factorization approach.
In this work we complete the investigation of the recently introduced energy-energy correlation (EEC) function in hadronic Higgs decays at next-to-leading order (NLO) in fixed-order perturbation theory in the limit of vanishing light quark masses. The full analytic NLO result for the previously unknown EEC in the $H \to q \bar{q} + X$ channel is given in terms of classical polylogarithms and cross-checked against a numerical calculation. In addition to that, we discuss further corrections to predictions of the Higgs EEC event shape variable, including quark mass corrections, effects of parton …
The trace amplitude method (TAM) provides us a straightforward way to calculate the helicity amplitudes with massive fermions analytically. In this work, we review the basic idea of this method, and then discuss how it can be applied to next-to-leading order (NLO) quantum chromodynamics (QCD) calculations, which has not been explored before. By analyzing the singularity structures of both virtual and real corrections, we show that the TAM can be generalized to NLO QCD calculations straightforwardly, the only caution is that the unitarity should be guaranteed. We also present a simple example t…
We present a method, based on the positive weight next-to-leading-order matching formalism (POWHEG), to simulate photon production processes at next-to-leading-order (NLO). This technique is applied to the simulation of diphoton production in hadron-hadron collisions. The algorithm consistently combines the parton shower and NLO calculation, producing only positive weight events. The simulation includes both the photon fragmentation contribution and a full implementation of the truncated shower required to correctly describe soft emissions in an angular-ordered parton shower.
We compute the electroweak (EW) contributions to squark--squark pair production processes at the LHC within the framework of the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model (MSSM). Both tree-level EW contributions, of O(alpha_s alpha + alpha^2), and next-to-leading order (NLO) EW corrections, of O(alpha_s^2 alpha), are calculated. Depending on the flavor and chirality of the produced quarks, many interferences between EW-mediated and QCD-mediated diagrams give non-zero contributions at tree-level and NLO. We discuss the computational techniques and present an extensive numerical analysis for inclusi…
The measurement of the hadronic cross-section in $e^+ e^-$ annihilation at high luminosity factories using the radiative return method is motivated and discussed. A Monte Carlo generator which simulates the radiative process $e^+ e^- \to γ+hadrons$ at the next-to-leading order accuracy is presented. The analysis is then extended to the description of events with hard photons radiated at very small angle.
We describe a new method, based on an extension of the unitarity cutting rules proposed earlier, which is very efficient for the algorithmic evaluation of phase-space integrals for various differential distributions. As a first application, we compute the next-to-leading order normalized rapidity distribution of the CP-even and the CP-odd Higgs boson produced in hadron collisions through gluon fusion. We work in the heavy top-quark approximation; we find that the NLO corrections at the LHC are approximately 5% in the zero rapidity region.
We present predictions for top anti-top bottom anti-bottom production at the LHC in next-to-leading order QCD. The precise description of this background process is a prerequisite to observe associated top anti-top Higgs production in the Higgs -> bottom anti-bottom decay channel and to directly measure the top-quark Yukawa coupling at the LHC. The leading-order cross section is extremely sensitive to scale variations. We observe that the traditional scale choice adopted in ATLAS simulations underestimates the top anti-top bottom anti-bottom background by a factor two and introduce a new dynam…
The recent measurements of the B_s meson mixing amplitude by CDF and of the leptonic branching fraction BR(B to tau nu) by Belle call for an upgraded analysis of the Unitarity Triangle in the Standard Model. Besides improving the previous constraints on the parameters of the CKM matrix, these new measurements, combined with the recent determinations of the angles alpha, beta and gamma from non-leptonic decays, allow, in the Standard Model, a quite accurate extraction of the values of the hadronic matrix elements relevant for K-Kbar and B_{s,d}-B_{s,d}bar mixing and of the leptonic decay consta…
Hadronic observables in Z+jet events can be subject to large NLO corrections at TeV scales, with K-factors that even reach values of order 50 in some cases. We develop a method, LoopSim, by which approximate NNLO predictions can be obtained for such observables, supplementing NLO Z+jet and NLO Z+2-jet results with a unitarity-based approximation for missing higher loop terms. We first test the method against known NNLO results for Drell-Yan lepton pt spectra. We then show our approximate NNLO results for the Z+jet observables. Finally we examine whether the LoopSim method can provide useful in…
We present Next-to-Leading Order (NLO) predictions for $γγγγ$ final states, including the effects of photon fragmentation. Our results are calculated fully analytically using the techniques of $D$-dimensional unitarity, and we discuss some refinements to existing methods, focusing particularly on the role of three-mass triangle coefficients. Using these techniques we are able to produce a numerically stable Monto Carlo code that runs fully in double precision. We investigate the $4γ$ signal at colliders, both for Run II of the LHC and at future machines. Our results are implemented in MCFM.
We compute the 1-loop (alpha_s^2) correction to hard spectator scattering in non-leptonic B decay tree amplitudes. This forms part of the NNLO contribution to the QCD factorization formula for hadronic B decays, and introduces a new rescattering phase that corrects the leading-order result for direct CP asymmetries. Among the technical issues, we discuss the cancellation of infrared divergences, and the treatment of evanescent four-quark operators. The infrared finiteness of our result establishes factorization of spectator scattering at the 1-loop order. Depending on the values of hadronic in…
We present the full NLO QCD corrections to the production of a W^+W^- pair in association with two jets in hadronic collisions, which is an important background to New Physics and Higgs boson searches. We include leptonic decays of the W-bosons with full spin correlations. We find NLO corrections of the order of 10% for standard cuts at the LHC. The scale dependence is considerably reduced by the NLO corrections.
We compute the charged pion loop contribution to the light-by-light scattering amplitude for off-shell photons in chiral perturbation theory through next-to-leading order (NLO). We show that NLO contributions are relatively more important due to a fortuitous numerical suppression of the leading-order (LO) terms. Consequently, one expects theoretical predictions for the hadronic light-by-light (HLBL) contribution to the muon anomalous magnetic moment, $a_μ^{HLBL}$, to be sensitive to the choice of model for the higher momentum-dependence of the LBL amplitude. We show that models employed thus f…
Recent studies of hadronic -meson decays are reported. Some experimental searches of CP-symmetry violation using model independent methods are presented. An importance of unitarity constraints in construction of phenomenological models of the D-meson decays is underlined. The theoretical model of the D0 --> K0S pi+ pi- decays, including some two-body unitarity constraints, is described. Then a comparison of the model results with the Belle collaboration data is made. The results on the CP-violation in the D0 --> K0S pi+ pi- decays are given and the necessity to consider the CP-violation in the…
We develop threshold resummation for single-particle inclusive cross sections in hadron-hadron collisions to the level of next-to-next-to-leading logarithm, up to full matching with two-loop hard functions. We define and calculate all one-loop soft functions for all partonic channels. This enables us to separate the hard and soft functions at one loop. Along with these results, the one-loop finite parts of jet functions are used to check that the full soft, collinear and virtual corrections are reproduced to one loop for all partonic reactions. We exhibit these NLO results explicitly. NLO expa…
We study the matching of multijet matrix elements and shower evolution in the case of top production in hadronic collisions at the Tevatron and at the LHC. We present the results of the matching algorithm implemented in the ALPGEN Monte Carlo generator, and compare them with results obtained at the parton level, and with the predictions of the MC@NLO approach. We highlight the consistency of the matching algorithm when applied to these final states, and the excellent agreement obtained with MC@NLO for most inclusive quantities. We nevertheless identify also a remarkable difference in the rapid…
We consider the application of regularization by dimensional reduction to NLO corrections of hadronic processes. The general collinear singularity structure is discussed, the origin of the regularization-scheme dependence is identified and transition rules to other regularization schemes are derived.
The aim of this work is to describe in detail the POWHEG method, first suggested by one of the authors, for interfacing parton-shower generators with NLO QCD computations. We describe the method in its full generality, and then specify its features in two subtraction frameworks for NLO calculations: the Catani-Seymour and the Frixione-Kunszt-Signer approach. Two examples are discussed in detail in both approaches: the production of hadrons in e+e- collisions, and the Drell-Yan vector-boson production in hadronic collisions.
We present results for the O(alpha_s) virtual corrections to q g -> W b bbar q' obtained with a new automatized approach to the evaluation of one-loop amplitudes in terms of Feynman diagrams. Together with the O(alpha_s) corrections to q q' -> W b bbar g, which can be obtained from our results by crossing symmetry, this represents the bulk of the next-to-leading order virtual QCD corrections to W b bbar + j and W b + j hadronic production, calculated in a fixed-flavor scheme with four light flavors. Furthermore, these corrections represent a well defined and independent subset of the 1-loop am…
We study NLO QCD corrections as relevant to hadronic W decay in W pair production at a future 500 GeV electron-positron linac, with particular emphasis on the determination of triple gauge boson vertices. We find that hard gluon bremstrahlung may mimic signatures of anomalous triple gauge boson vertices in certain distributions. The size of these effects can strongly depend on the polarisation of the initial electron positron beams.
In a recent work the authors have presented a general algorithm to extend the Matrix Element Method (MEM) to the hadronic production of coloured partons taking into account next-to-leading-order (NLO) corrections in quantum chromodynamics (QCD). In this article, the general algorithm is applied to the production of single top quarks at the LHC. In particular, the generation of unweighted events following the NLO predictions is presented. Treating these events as the result of a toy experiment we illustrate the first application of the Matrix Element Method at NLO QCD for hadronic jet productio…
We study the production of jets in hadronic collisions, by computing all contributions proportional to $α_S^nα^m$, with $n+m=2$ and $n+m=3$. These correspond to leading and next-to-leading order results, respectively, for single-inclusive and dijet observables in a perturbative expansion that includes both QCD and electroweak effects. We discuss issues relevant to the definition of hadronic jets in the context of electroweak corrections, and present sample phenomenological predictions for the 13-TeV LHC. We find that both the leading and next-to-leading order contributions largely respect the …
In this paper, we show (i) that the NLO corrections do not change the power-like decrease of the scattering amplitude at large impact parameter ($b^2 \,>\,r^2 \exp\left( 2\bar(α}_S η(1 + 4 \barα_S)\right)$, where $r$ denotes the size of scattering dipole and $η\,=\,\ln(1/x_{Bj})$ for DIS), and, therefore, they do not resolve the inconsistency with unitarity; and (ii) they lead to an oscillating behaviour of the scattering amplitude atlarge $b$, in direct contradiction with the unitarity constraints. However, from the more practical point of view, the NLO estimates give a faster decrease of the…
We demonstrate that in calculation, where unitarity constraints are properly imposed, the deeply bound hadronic molecules recently proposed by Close and Downum do not exist.
We evaluate thresholds resummed spectra in B -> Xu l nu decays in next-to-leading order. We present results for the distribution in E_X and in m_X^2/E_X^2, for the distribution in E_X and E_l and for the distribution in E_X, where E_X and m_X are the energy and the invariant mass of the final hadronic state Xu respectively and E_l is the energy of the charged lepton. We explicitly show that all these spectra (where there is no integration over the hadronic energy) can be directly related to the photon spectrum in B -> Xs gamma via short-distance coefficient functions.
$τ\toππν$, $τ\toπKν$, $τ\to Kην$, $τ\to 3πν$ and $τ\to ππKν$ have been investigated using chiral symmetry with dispersion relation in agreement with the unitarity condition.
NLO QCD corrections to charged and neutral current Drell-Yan processes and their implementation in the computer system SANC are considered. On the partonic level both quark-antiquark and quark-gluon scattering channels are taken into account. Subtractions of the collinear singularities in the massive case are compared with ones in the MS-bar scheme. Results of SANC on the hadronic level are presented. Comparison with results of the MCFM package is shown.
High statistics fixed target and ISR inclusive photon production data are compared to next-to-leading order (NLO) QCD calculations. The dependence of the theoretical predictions on the structure functions, and on the theoretical scales is investigated. It is shown that the data cannot be simultaneously fitted with a single set of structure functions and scales. However, it is argued that as long as one restricts the data/theory comparison to the xT range where the theory is reliable, i.e. stable with respect to the scale variation, there is no need to introduce an additional primordial kT depe…
In the light of the new prompt photon data collected by PHENIX at RHIC and by D0 at the run II of the Tevatron, we revisit the world prompt photon data, both inclusive and isolated, in hadronic collisions, and compare them with the NLO QCD calculations implemented in the Monte Carlo programme JETPHOX.
We evaluate in perturbative QCD the semi-inclusive Drell-Yan cross-section for the production of a single hadron accompaining the lepton pair. We demonstrate to one loop level a collinear factorization formula within the fracture functions approach. We propose such a process as a factorization analyzer in hadronic collisions. Phenomenological implications at the hadron colliders are briefly discussed.
We present the NLO corrections to the Wilson coefficients of the Delta F = 2 Hamiltonians in the strong interacting sector of the MSSM, responsible for neutral meson oscillations. Such corrections, combined with the NLO anomalous dimension matrix for the Delta F = 2 operators and the corresponding hadronic matrix elements calculated on the lattice, allow for the first time a full NLO phenomenological analysis of the observables related to meson oscillations. We present preliminary results in the B_d - B_d bar sector.
We summarize the present knowledge on the non-perturbative hadronic inputs needed in the analysis of $B^0$-$\bar B^0$ mixing and the CP-violating parameter $\varepsilon$ of the $K^0$-$\bar K^0$ system. Using this information, together with the recently determined value of the top-quark mass, we update the phenomenological constraints on the unitarity triangle.
