We consider the production of W bosons in hadron collisions, and the subsequent leptonic decay W->lnu_l. We study the asymmetry between the rapidity distributions of the charged leptons, and we present its computation up to the next-to-next-to-leading order (NNLO) in QCD perturbation theory. Our calculation includes the dependence on the lepton kinematical cuts that are necessarily applied to select W-> lnu_l events in actual experimental analyses at hadron colliders. We illustrate the main differences between the W and lepton charge asymmetry, and we discuss their physical origin and the effect of the QCD radiative corrections. We show detailed numerical results on the charge asymmetry in ppbar collisions at the Tevatron, and we discuss the comparison with some of the available data. Some illustrative results on the lepton charge asymmetry in pp collisions at LHC energies are presented.
We report on the extraction of the higher twist contributions to F_2 and R = sigma_L/sigma_T from the global NLO and NNLO QCD fits to lepton nucleon scattering data over a wide range of Q^2. The NLO fits require both target mass and higher twist contributions at low Q^2. However, in the NNLO analysis, the data are described by the NNLO QCD predictions (with target mass corrections) without the need for any significant contributions from higher twist effects. An estimate of the difference between NLO and NNLO parton distribution functions is obtained.
The production of lepton pairs at low invariant mass and finite transverse momentum resolves QCD dynamics at the boundary between the perturbative and non-perturbative domains. We investigate the impact of NNLO QCD corrections on these observables at energies corresponding to the BNL RHIC collider and to fixed-target experiments. Satisfactory perturbative convergence is observed in both cases. Only the collider data are found to be well-described by perturbative QCD, thus indicating the importance of non-perturbative effects in lepton-pair transverse momentum distributions at fixed target ener…
We report on a complete calculation of electroweak production of top quark pairs in $e^+e^-$ annihilation at next-to-next-to-leading order in Quantum Chromodynamics. Our setup is fully differential and can be used to calculate any infrared-safe observable. Especially we calculated the next-to-next-to-leading order corrections to top-quark forward-backward asymmetry and found sizable effects. Our results show a large reduction of the theoretical uncertainties in predictions of the forward-backward asymmetry, and allow a precision determination of the top quark electroweak couplings at future $e…
We calculate, for the first time, the NNLO QCD corrections to identified heavy hadron production at hadron colliders. The calculation is based on a flexible numeric framework which allows the calculation of any distribution of a single identified heavy hadron plus jets and non-QCD particles. As a first application we provide NNLO QCD predictions for several differential distributions of $B$ hadrons in $t\bar t$ events at the LHC. Among others, these predictions are needed for the precise determination of the top quark mass. The extension of our results to other processes, like open or associat…
The four-lepton decay mode of the Higgs boson allows for a clean kinematic reconstruction, thereby enabling precision studies of the Higgs boson properties and of its production dynamics. We compute the NNLO QCD corrections to fiducial cross sections relevant to this decay mode in the gluon-fusion production of a Higgs boson in association with a hadronic jet, and study the impact of the QCD corrections on the fiducial acceptance factors in inclusive Higgs and Higgs-plus-jet production. We investigate in detail the different definitions used in the ATLAS and CMS measurements to define the fidu…
We provide the most up-to-date predictions for the top-quark charge asymmetry A_C at the LHC with a centre-of-mass energy of 8 TeV. Our result is accurate at the NNLO level in the strong interactions and at the complete-NLO level in both the strong and electroweak interactions. We present results for the inclusive A_C, several differential asymmetries as well as the P_{T,tt} and M_{tt} cumulative asymmetries. Similarly to the Tevatron forward-backward asymmetry A_FB, both NNLO QCD and NLO EW corrections to A_C are found to be significant. The inclusion of higher-order corrections reduces the r…
We calculate a comprehensive set of spin correlations and differential distributions in top-quark pair production and decay to dilepton final states. This is the first time such a complete study is performed at next-to-next-to leading order in QCD. Both inclusive and fiducial distributions are presented and analyzed. Good agreement between NNLO QCD predictions and data is found. We demonstrate that it is possible to perform high-precision comparisons of fixed-order calculations with fiducial-level data. Subtleties of the top quark definition are raised and clarified. Some of those are found to…
Virtual fermionic N_f = 1 and N_f = 2 contributions to Bhabha scattering are combined with realistic real corrections at next-to-next-to-leading order in QED. The virtual corrections are determined by the package bha_nnlo_hf, and real corrections with the Monte Carlo generators Bhagen-1Ph, Helac-Phegas and Ekhara. Numerical results are discussed at the energies of and with realistic cuts used at the Phi factory DAFNE, at the B factories PEP-II and KEK, and at the charm/tau factory BEPC II. We compare these complete calculations with the approximate ones realized in the generator BabaYaga@NLO u…
I reconsider the forward-backward asymmetry for flavoured quarks in electron-positron annihilation. I suggest an infrared-safe definition of this observable, such that the asymmetry may be computed in perturbative QCD with massless quarks. With this definition, the first and second order QCD corrections are computed.
Exclusive non-leptonic two-body decays of $B$ mesons have been studied extensively in the past two decades within the framework of factorization. However, the exploration of the corresponding three-body case has only started recently, in part motivated by new data. We consider here the simplest non-leptonic three-body $B$ decays from the point of view of factorization, namely heavy-to-heavy transitions. We provide a careful derivation of the SCET/QCDF factorized amplitudes to NNLO in $α_s$, and discuss the numerical impact of NLO and NNLO corrections. We then study the narrow-width limit, show…
We present a simple approach to combine NNLO QCD calculations and parton showers, based on the UNLOPS technique. We apply the method to the computation of Drell-Yan lepton-pair production at the Large Hadron Collider. We comment on possible improvements and intrinsic uncertainties.
The reweighting method presented in earlier publications is applied for incorporating the LHC W lepton asymmetry data published in 2010 into the NNPDF2.1 NNLO analysis. We confirm the result of the NLO analysis which indicated that these data reduce PDF uncertainties of light quarks in the medium and small-x region, providing the first solid constraints on PDFs from LHC data.
We present the calculation of next-to-next-to-leading order (NNLO) corrections in perturbative QCD for the production of a Higgs boson decaying into a pair of bottom quarks in association with a leptonically decaying weak vector boson: $\mathrm{pp} \to V \mathrm{H} + X \to \ell\bar{\ell}\;\mathrm{b\bar{b}} + X$. We consider the corrections to both the production and decay sub-processes, retaining a fully differential description of the final state including off-shell propagators of the Higgs and vector boson. The calculation is carried out using the antenna subtraction formalism and is impleme…
We consider QCD radiative corrections to $ZZ$ production for all experimentally relevant leptonic processes. We report on a novel computation of next-to-next-to-leading-order (NNLO) corrections to the diboson signature with two charged leptons and missing transverse energy ($\ell\ell$+$E_T^{\rm miss}$). All relevant final states are considered: $\ell\ellν_\ellν_\ell$, $\ell\ellν_{\ell'}ν_{\ell'}$ and $\ellν_{\ell}\ell'ν_{\ell'}$. We also study processes with four charged leptons: $\ell\ell\ell\ell$ and $\ell\ell\ell'\ell'$. For the first time NNLO accuracy is achieved for a process mixing two …
The calculation of the moments in inclusive B meson semileptonic decays is upgraded to O(alphas^2). The first three moments of the lepton energy and invariant hadronic mass distributions are computed for arbitrary cuts on the lepton energy and in various renormalization schemes, finding in general small deviations from the O(alphas^2 beta0) calculation. I also review the relation between MSbar and kinetic heavy quark masses.
We have recently calculated the second-order QCD corrections to the forward-backward asymmetry in e+e- annihilation (hep-ph/9905424). Here we recall the results and compare them to others in the literature.
The rare three-body decay of a Higgs boson to a lepton-antilepton pair and a photon is starting to become experimentally accessible at the LHC. We investigate how higher-order QCD corrections to the dominant gluon-fusion production process impact on the fiducial cross sections in this specific Higgs decay mode for electrons and muons. Corrections up to NNLO QCD are found to be sizeable. They are generally uniform in kinematical variables related to the Higgs boson, but display several distinctive features in the kinematics of its individual decay products.
A complete, gauge-invariant computation of two loop virtual corrections involving closed fermion loops to the polarized Møller scattering asymmetry is presented. The set of contributions involving two closed fermion loops and the set involving one closed fermion loop are numerically similar in magnitude to the one-loop bosonic corrections and yield an overall correction of 1.3% relative to the tree-level asymmetry. We estimate sizes of remaining two-loop contributions and discuss implications for the upcoming MOLLER experiment.
The computation of direct CP asymmetries in charmless B decays at next-to-next-to-leading order (NNLO) in QCD is of interest to ascertain the short-distance contribution. Here we compute the two-loop penguin contractions of the current-current operators Q_{1,2} and provide a first estimate of NNLO CP asymmetries in penguin-dominated b -> s transitions.
This paper presents perturbative QCD predictions of the electron charge asymmetry for the inclusive $W^{\pm}+X \rightarrow e^{\pm} ν+X$ production in proton-proton (pp) collisions. Perturbative QCD calculations are performed at next-to-next-to-leading order (NNLO) accuracy by using different parton distribution function (PDF) models at 8 TeV, 13 TeV, and 14 TeV center-of-mass energies of the CERN LHC pp collisions. The NNLO calculations are performed for the electrons to have transverse momentum more than 20 GeV in the forward electron pseudorapidity region $2.0 \leq η_{e} \leq 4.25$. The NNLO…
Predictions of fiducial cross sections, differential cross sections and lepton charge asymmetry are presented for the production of $W^{\pm}$ bosons with leptonic decay up to next-to-next-to-leading order (NNLO) in perturbative QCD. Differential cross sections of $W^{\pm}$ bosons and W boson lepton charge asymmetry are computed as a function of lepton pseudorapidity for a defined fiducial region in $pp$ collisions at $\sqrt{s}=13$ TeV. Numerical results of fiducial $W^{\pm}$ cross section predictions are presented with the latest modern PDF models at next-to-leading order (NLO) and NNLO. It is…
We present the computation of Higgs boson production in association with a jet at the LHC including QCD corrections up to NNLO. The calculation includes the subsequent decay of the Higgs boson into four leptons, allowing for the full reconstruction of the final-state kinematics. In anticipation of improved LHC measurements based on the full Run II dataset, we present a study for single- and double-differential cross sections within the fiducial volume as defined in prior ATLAS analyses. Higher-order corrections are found to have a sizeable impact on both normalisation and shape of differential…
We evaluate in the framework of QCD factorization the two-loop vertex corrections to the decays $\bar{B}_{(s)}\to D_{(s)}^{(\ast)+} \, L^-$ and $Λ_b \to Λ_c^+ \, L^-$, where $L$ is a light meson from the set $\{π,ρ,K^{(\ast)},a_1\}$. These decays are paradigms of the QCD factorization approach since only the colour-allowed tree amplitude contributes at leading power. Hence they are sensitive to the size of power corrections once their leading-power perturbative expansion is under control. Here we compute the two-loop ${\cal O}(α_s^2)$ correction to the leading-power hard scattering kernels, an…
We compute the dominant term in the expansion in rho=1-M_W/m_t of the unknown next-to-next-to-leading order (NNLO) nonresonant contributions to the e+ e- -> W+ W- b bbar total cross section at energies close to the top-antitop threshold. Our analytic result disagrees with a previous calculation by other authors [1]. We show that our determination has the correct infrared structure needed to cancel the divergences proportional to the top width arising in the resonant production of the same final state, and we point out to a missing contribution in the computation of [1] to explain the discrepan…
The transverse momentum distribution of massive neutral vector bosons can be measured to high accuracy at hadron colliders. The transverse momentum is caused by a partonic recoil, and is determined by QCD dynamics. We compute the single and double-differential transverse momentum distributions for fully inclusive $Z/γ^*$ production including leptonic decay to next-to-next-to-leading order (NNLO) in perturbative QCD. We also compute the same distributions normalised to the cross sections for inclusive $Z/γ^*$ production, i.e. integrated over the transverse momentum of the lepton pair. We compar…
We consider the collinear limit of QCD amplitudes at one-loop order, and their factorization properties directly in colour space. These results apply to the multiple collinear limit of an arbitrary number of QCD partons, and are a basic ingredient in many higher-order computations. In particular, we discuss the triple collinear limit and its relation to flavour asymmetries in the QCD evolution of parton densities at three loops. As a phenomenological consequence of this new effect, and of the fact that the nucleon has non-vanishing quark valence densities, we study the perturbative generation …
The paper discusses the two-loop (NNLO) electroweak radiative corrections to the parity-violating Moller scattering asymmetry induced by insertions to boxes of electron and neutrino mass operators (fermion self-energies), vertex functions and boson self-energies. The results will be relevant to the ultra-precise 11 GeV MOLLER experiment planned at the Jefferson Laboratory, which will measure the weak charge of the electron and search for new physics. The numerical estimations for the NNLO contribution to the cross section asymmetry are presented.
McMule is a framework for fully differential higher-order QED calculations of scattering and decay processes involving leptons. It keeps finite lepton masses, which regularises collinear singularities. Soft singularities are treated with dimensional regularisation and using FKS$^\ell$ subtraction. We describe the implementation of the framework in Fortran 95, list the processes that are currently implemented, and give instructions on how to run the code. In addition, we present new phenomenological results for muon-electron scattering and lepton-proton scattering, including the dominant NNLO c…
We consider QCD radiative corrections to Standard Model Higgs boson production in association with a W boson in hadron collisions. We present a fully exclusive calculation up to next-to-next-to-leading order (NNLO) in QCD perturbation theory. To perform this NNLO computation, we use a recently proposed version of the subtraction formalism. Our calculation includes finite-width effects, the leptonic decay of the W boson with its spin correlations, and the decay of the Higgs boson into a bbbar pair. We present selected numerical results at the Tevatron and the LHC.
We present a next-to-next-to-leading order accurate description of Drell-Yan lepton pair production processes through $γ^*/Z$ or $W$ exchange that includes consistently parton shower effects. Results are obtained by upgrading the vector-boson plus one jet NLO calculation in POWHEG with the MiNLO procedure and by applying an appropriate reweighting procedure making use of the DYNNLO program. We compare to existing data and to accurate resummed calculations.
We present a comprehensive study of differential distributions for Tevatron top-pair events at the level of stable top quarks. All calculations are performed in NNLO QCD with the help of a fully differential partonic Monte-Carlo and are exact at this order in perturbation theory. We present predictions for all kinematic distributions for which data exists. Particular attention is paid on the top-quark forward-backward asymmetry which we study in detail. We compare the NNLO results with existing approximate NNLO predictions as well as differential distributions computed with different parton di…
Incompleteness in current knowledge of neutrino interactions with nuclear matter imposes a primary limitation in searches for leptonic CP violation carried out at long-baseline neutrino experiments. In this paper, we present a new computation that elevates the theoretical accuracy to next-to-next-to-leading order (NNLO) in QCD for charged-current deeply-inelastic scattering (DIS) processes relevant for ongoing and future neutrino programs. Mass-dependent quark contributions are consistently included across a wide range of momentum transfers in the SACOT-$χ$ general-mass scheme. When appropriat…
We present the full next-to-next-to-leading order (NNLO) coefficient functions for the polarized cross section $dΔσ/dQ$ for the Drell-Yan process $p + p\to l^+l^- + 'X'$. Here $'X'$ denotes any inclusive hadronic state and $Q$ represents the invariant mass of the lepton pair. All QCD partonic subprocesses have been included provided the lepton pair is created by a virtual photon, which is a valid approximation for $Q<50$ GeV. Unlike the differential distribution w.r.t. transverse momentum the dominant subprocess for the integrated cross section is given by $q+\bar q \to γ^* + 'X'$ and its high…
We consider QCD radiative corrections to the production of four charged leptons in the ZZ signal region at the LHC. We report on the complete calculation of the next-to-next-to-leading order (NNLO) corrections to this process in QCD perturbation theory. Numerical results are presented for $\sqrt{s}=8$ TeV, using typical selection cuts applied by the ATLAS and CMS collaborations. The NNLO corrections increase the NLO fiducial cross section by about $15\%$, and they have a relatively small impact on the shape of the considered kinematical distributions. In the case of the $ΔΦ$ distribution of th…
We report on a fully differential next-to-next-to-leading order (NNLO) calculation of s-channel single top (anti-)quark production with a semi-leptonic decay at the LHC, neglecting the color correlation between the light and heavy quark lines and in the narrow width approximation. The NNLO corrections can increase the cross section by about 10% in the low transverse momentum region of the top quark and reduce scale variation uncertainty. In order to compare with experimental results without unfolding procedures, we also present theoretical predictions with fiducial cuts, including total cross …
The first results on the complete next-to-next-to-leading order (NNLO) Quantum Chromodynamic (QCD) corrections to the production of di-leptons at hadron colliders in large extra dimension models with spin-2 particles are reported in this article. In particular, we have computed these corrections to the invariant mass distribution of the di-leptons taking into account all the partonic subprocesses that contribute at NNLO. In these models, spin-2 particles couple through the energy-momentum tensor of the Standard Model (SM) with the universal coupling strength. The tensorial nature of the intera…
We discuss the next-to-next-to-leading order (NNLO) QCD corrections to Z boson production in association with a jet including all partonic channels at all color levels and including the leptonic decay of the Z boson. We focus on the optimization of the numerical evaluation of the double-real contribution and demonstrate that our procedure for spreading the Monte Carlo integration over $\mathcal{O}(1000)$ cores and recombining the results afterwards lead to stable results with sensible error estimates. We apply representative cuts on the jet and charged lepton transverse momenta and pseudorapid…
We consider the production of W and Z bosons in hadron collisions. We present a selection of numerical results obtained through a fully exclusive calculation up to next-to-next-to-leading order (NNLO) in QCD perturbation theory. We include the $γ$--$Z$ interference, finite-width effects, the leptonic decay of the vector bosons and the corresponding spin correlations. The calculation is completely realistic, since it allows us to apply arbitrary kinematical cuts on the final-state leptons and the associated partons, and to compute the corresponding distributions in the form of bin histograms.
We compute the next-to-next-to-leading order QCD corrections to Higgs boson production in weak boson fusion followed by its decay to a $b\bar b$ pair or to a pair of leptonically-decaying $W$ bosons. Our calculation allows us to compute realistic fiducial cross sections and assess the impact of fiducial cuts applied to the Higgs boson decay products on the magnitude of QCD radiative corrections in weak boson fusion.
We present a first computation of the NNLO QCD cross section at the LHC for the production of four leptons from a Higgs boson decaying into W bosons. We study the cross section for a Higgs boson mass Mh = 165 GeV; around this value a Standard Model Higgs boson decays almost exclusively into W-pairs. We apply all nominal experimental cuts on the final state leptons and the associated jet activity and study the magnitude of higher-order effects up to NNLO on all kinematic variables which are constrained by experimental cuts. We find that the magnitude of the higher-order corrections varies signi…
Forward-backward asymmetries, $A_{FB}^Q$, are important observables for the determination of the neutral-current couplings of heavy quarks in inclusive heavy quark production, $e^+ e^- \to γ^*, Z^* \to Q +X$. In view of the measurement perspectives on $A_{FB}^Q$ at a future linear collider, precise predictions of $A_{FB}^Q$ are required for massive quarks. We compute the contribution of the $Q \bar Q$ final state to $A_{FB}^Q$ to order $\as^2$ in the QCD coupling. We provide general formulae, and we show that this contribution to $A_{FB}^Q$ is infrared-finite. We evaluate these two-parton cont…
We consider the production of $Wγ$ and $Zγ$ pairs at hadron colliders. We report on the complete fully differential computation of radiative corrections at next-to-next-to-leading order (NNLO) in QCD perturbation theory. The calculation includes the leptonic decay of the vector boson with the corresponding spin correlations, off shell effects and final-state photon radiation. We present numerical results for $pp$ collisions at 7 and 8 TeV and we compare them with available LHC data. In the case of $Zγ$ production, the impact of NNLO corrections is generally moderate, ranging from 8% to 18%, de…
Drell-Yan lepton pairs with finite transverse momentum are produced when the vector boson recoils against (multiple) parton emission(s), and is determined by QCD dynamics. At small transverse momentum, the fixed order predictions break down due to the emergence of large logarithmic contributions. This region can be studied via the $p_T^Z$ distribution constructed from the energies of the leptons, or through the $ϕ^*$ distribution that relies on the directions of the leptons. For sufficiently small transverse momentum, the $ϕ^*$ observable can be measured experimentally with better resolution. …
I present a master formula for the next-to-next-to-leading order (NNLO) soft and virtual QCD corrections for any process in hadron-hadron and lepton-hadron colliders. The formula is derived from a unified threshold resummation formalism. Applications to various QCD processes are discussed.
We report on the first computation of the next-to-next-to-leading order (NNLO) QCD corrections to $W^{\pm}Z$ production in proton collisions. We consider both the inclusive production of on-shell $W^{\pm}Z$ pairs at LHC energies and the total $W^{\pm}Z$ rates including off-shell effects of the $W$ and $Z$ bosons. In the off-shell computation, the invariant mass of the lepton pairs from the $Z$ boson decay is required to be in a given mass window, and the results are compared with the corresponding measurements obtained by the ATLAS and CMS collaborations. The NNLO corrections range from 8% at …
We consider QCD radiative corrections to the production of W and Z bosons in hadron collisions. We present a fully exclusive calculation up to next-to-next-to-leading order (NNLO) in QCD perturbation theory. To perform this NNLO computation, we use a recently proposed version of the subtraction formalism. The calculation includes the gamma-Z interference, finite-width effects, the leptonic decay of the vector bosons and the corresponding spin correlations. Our calculation is implemented in a parton level Monte Carlo program. The program allows the user to apply arbitrary kinematical cuts on th…
We present novel predictions for the production of $W^+W^-$ pairs in hadron collisions that are next-to-next-to-leading order accurate and consistently matched to a parton shower (NNLOPS). All diagrams that lead to the process $pp\to e^- \bar ν_e\;μ^+ν_μ+X$ are taken into account, thereby including spin correlations and off-shell effects. For the first time full NNLOPS accuracy is achieved for a $2\to 4$ process. We find good agreement, at the 1$σ$ level, with the $W^+W^-$ rates measured by ATLAS and CMS. The importance of NNLOPS predictions is evident from differential distributions sensitive…
We consider Standard Model Higgs boson production in association with a Z boson in hadron collisions. We present a fully exclusive computation of QCD radiative corrections up to next-to-next-to-leading order (NNLO). Our calculation includes the Higgs boson decay to bottom quarks (b) in next-to-leading order QCD and the leptonic decay of the Z boson with finite-width effects and spin correlations. The computation is implemented in a parton level Monte Carlo program that makes possible to consider arbitrary kinematical cuts on the final-state leptons, the b jets and the associated QCD radiation,…
We discuss interplay between the high-twist (HT) terms in the operator-product expansion and the next-to-next-to-leading-order (NNLO) QCD corrections to the deep-inelastic-scattering structure functions in analysis of the high-precision data for charged leptons. Under account of the NNLO corrections the observed HT terms change within their experimental errors only and do not vanish in the NNLO.
We present results from the first fully differential next-to-next-to leading order NNLO QCD computation of ZZ production, including off-shell effects, the leptonic decay and non-resonant contributions. We compare theoretical predictions to fiducial cross sections and distributions measured by ATLAS and CMS at 8 TeV and also perform a first comparison with early ATLAS measurements at 13 TeV.
I present results for the top quark rapidity distribution at LHC and Tevatron energies, including higher-order corrections from threshold resummation. The next-to-next-to-leading-order (NNLO) soft-gluon corrections at next-to-next-to-leading-logarithm (NNLL) level are added to the NLO result. Theoretical predictions are shown for the rapidity distribution, including the scale dependence of the distributions. The forward-backward asymmetry at the Tevatron is also calculated.
