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 shower and hadronization. We also estimate the statistical error on the measurements of the Higgs EEC at future Higgs factories and compare with the current perturbative uncertainty.
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.
We report on recent progress in the evaluation of next-to-leading order (NLO) observables using Lipatov's QCD high energy effective action. We calculate both real and virtual corrections to the quark induced forward jet vertex at NLO, making use of a new regularization method and a subtraction mechanism. As a new result we determine the real part of the NLO Mueller-Tang impact factor which is the only missing element for a complete NLO BFKL description of dijet events with a rapidity gap.
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.
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.
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 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.
We present exploratory studies of the proton structure via two distinct kinds of gluon densities: the transverse-momentum dependent functions, whose evolution is determined by the CSS equation, and the unintegrated gluon distribution, whose definition is given in the BFKL formalism. Our analyses are relevant for the exploration of the intrinsic motion of gluons inside protons in the small-$x$ regime, and for a comprehensive tomographic imaging of the proton at new-generation colliding facilities.
We present the current status of the application of our approach of {\it exact} amplitude-based resummation in quantum field theory to precision QCD calculations, by realistic MC event generator methods, as needed for precision LHC physics.In this ongoing program of research, we discuss recent results as they relate to the interplay of the attendant IR-Improved DGLAP-CS theory of one of us and the precision of exact NLO matrix element matched parton shower MC's in the Herwig6.5 environment in relation to recent LHC experimental observations. There continues to be reason for optimism in the att…
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 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 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 $\varepsilon '/\varepsilon$.
We introduce a modified factorization formalism in quantum chromodynamics for hadronic production of $W$ and $Z$ bosons at large transverse momentum $p_T$. When $p_T$ is much larger than the invariant mass $Q$ of the vector boson, this new factorization formalism systematically resums the large fragmentation logarithms, $α_s^m\ln^m(p_T^2/Q^2)$, to all orders in the strong coupling $α_s$. Using our modified factorization formalism, we calculate the next-to-leading order (NLO) predictions for $W$ and $Z$ boson production at high $p_T$ at the CERN Large Hadron Collider and at a future 100 TeV pro…
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\…
We study jet physics in the high energy regime of QCD. Based on the NLO BFKL equation, we construct a vertex for the production of a jet at central rapidity in k_T-factorization. A jet algorithm is introduced, and we take special care of the separation of multi-Regge and quasi-multi-Regge kinematics. The connection with the energy scale of the evolution is investigated in detail. The result is discussed for two situations: scattering of highly virtual photons, which requires a symmetric energy scale to separate the impact factors from the gluon Green's function, and hadron-hadron collisions, w…
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
The production of top-quark pairs that subsequently decay hadronically and leptonically (lepton+jets channel) is one of the key processes for the study of top-quark properties at the LHC. In this article, NLO QCD corrections of order $\mathcal{O}{\left(α_{\rm s}^3α^{4}\right)}$ to the hadronic process ${\rm p}{\rm p}\to μ^-\barν_μ{\rm b}\bar{\rm b} {\rm j} {\rm j}$ are presented. The computation includes off-shell as well as non-resonant contributions, and experimental event selections are used in order to provide realistic predictions. The results are provided in the form of cross sections an…
We present predictions for $t \bar t$ and $t \bar t H$ production and decay at future lepton colliders including non-resonant and interference contributions up to next-to-leading order (NLO) in perturbative QCD. The obtained precision predictions are necessary for a future precise determination of the top-quark Yukawa coupling, and allow for top-quark phenomenology in the continuum at an unprecedented level of accuracy. Simulations are performed with the automated NLO Monte-Carlo framework WHIZARD interfaced to the OpenLoops matrix element generator.
We review some outstanding puzzles and experimental anomalies in hadron physics that appear to challenge conventional wisdom and, in some cases, the foundations of QCD. We also discuss possible solutions and propose new tests and experiments that could illuminate the underlying physics and novel phenomenological features of QCD. In some cases, new perspectives for QCD physics have emerged.
We propose a phenomenological study of the Balitsky-Fadin-Kuraev-Lipatov (BFKL) approach applied to the data on the proton structure function $F_2$ measured at HERA in the small-$x_{Bj}$ region ($x_{Bj}<0.01$) and $Q^2$ in the range 5 to 120 GeV$^2$. With a simplified ``effective kernel'' approximation, we present a comparison between leading-logs (LO) and next-to-leading logs (NLO) BFKL approaches in the saddle-point approximation, using known resummed NLO-BFKL kernels. The LO result gives a very good description of the data with a three parameters fit of $F_2$ but an unphysical value of the …
We detail a calculation of W gamma production in hadronic collision, at Next-to-Leading Order (NLO) QCD interfaced to a shower generator according to the POWHEG prescription supplemented with the MiNLO procedure. The fixed order result is matched to an interleaved QCD+QED parton shower, in such a way that the contribution arising from hadron fragmentation into photons is fully modeled. In general, our calculation illustrates a new approach to the fully exclusive simulation of prompt photon production processes accurate at the NLO level in QCD. We compare our predictions to those of the NLO pro…
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…
In a perturbative QCD approach, with inclusion of spin and transverse momentum effects, experimental data on azimuthal asymmetries observed in polarized semi-inclusive deeply inelastic scattering and e+ e- annihilations can be used to determine the Sivers, transversity and Collins soft functions. By using these functions, within the same scheme, we predict p(transv. polarized) p -> h + X single spin asymmetries in remarkable agreement with RHIC experimental data.
We calculate the next-to-leading order(NLO) QCD corrections to the $WH^0$ production in association with a jet at hadron colliders. We study the impacts of the complete NLO QCD radiative corrections to the integrated cross sections, the scale dependence of the cross sections, and the differential cross sections ($\frac{d σ}{d\cosθ}$, $\frac{d σ}{dp_T}$) of the final $W$-, Higgs-boson and jet. We find that the corrections significantly modify the physical observables, and reduce the scale uncertainty of the LO cross section. Our results show that by applying the inclusive scheme with $p_{T,j}^{…
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.
In this contribution recent results regarding the NLO electroweak corrections for vector boson production in association with jets are presented. Besides discussing the phenomenology of the fixed-order results, their corporation in existing NLO QCD parton shower matched and merged calculations, which can directly be used in experimental analyses, will be shown.
Final-state rescattering effects on the hadronic B decays and their impact on direct CP violation are examined. The phenomenology of the polarization anomaly in $B\toϕK^*$ decays is discussed.
We calculate the one-loop correction to the static potential induced by $γ$, $W$ and $Z$-exchange at tree-level for arbitrary heavy standard model multiplets. We find that the result obeys a "Casimir-like" scaling, making the NLO correction to the potential a "low-energy" property of the electroweak gauge bosons. Furthermore, we discuss the phenomenology of the NLO potentials, the analytically known asymptotic limits and provide fitting functions in position space for easy use of the results.
We present a study at next-to-leading-order (NLO) of the process $pp \to W^\pm Z \to \ell ν_l \ell'^+ \ell'^-$, where $\ell,\ell' =e, μ$, at the Large Hadron Collider. We include the full NLO QCD corrections and the NLO electroweak (EW) corrections in the double-pole approximation. We define eight fiducial polarization coefficients directly constructed from the polar-azimuthal angular distribution of the decay leptons. These coefficients depend strongly on the kinematical cuts on the transverse momentum or rapidity of the individual leptons. Similarly, fiducial polarization fractions are also …
The computation of the NLO-QCD corrections to the cross sections for W γγproduction in hadronic collisions is presented. We consider the case of real photons in the final state, but include full leptonic decays of the W. Numerical results for the LHC and the Tevatron are obtained through a parton level Monte Carlo based on the structure of the VBFNLO program, allowing an easy implementation of general cuts and distributions. We show the dependence on scale variations of the integrated cross sections and provide evidence of the fact that NLO QCD corrections strongly modify the LO predictions fo…
We discuss the solution to the BFKL equation in the adjoint representation at LO and NLO accuracy for the N = 4 SUSY theory. We use Monte Carlo techniques to study numerically the Gluon Green's function at LO and NLO directly written in the transverse momentum space which allows for the factorization of its infrared divergencies. Finally, we discuss the applicability of our approach to phenomenological searches for the BKP Odderon at the LHC.
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.
We develop the analysis of diphoton exclusive photoproduction in the kinematics where a collinear QCD factorization framework applies, namely nearly forward large invariant mass diphoton production. We work at the leading twist level and at the next-to-leading order (NLO) in the strong coupling constant $α_S$. We compare our predictions for cross-sections with Born order calculations for the experimental conditions accessible to JLab experiments and show the interesting sensitivity of our results to various models of generalized parton distributions (GPDs). The NLO corrections are rather large…
The phase transition calculations are utilized for an in-depth understanding of the thermodynamics of the deconfinement transition to perform the best analysis of the QCD phase diagram. The phenomenological justifications for a mathematical approach to constructing the phase transition are found based on the properties of hadronic matter at low densities as well as quark matter at high densities. We modify both the quark matter equation of state by confining effects at low densities and the hadronic matter equation of state by excluded volume effects at higher densities. Over the intermediate …
The decays of $B$ mesons to a pair of charmless pseudoscalar mesons ($PP$ decays) or to a vector and pseudoscalar meson ($VP$ decays) have been analyzed within the framework of flavor SU(3) symmetry and the Kobayashi-Maskawa mechanism of CP violation. Separate $PP$ and $VP$ fits proved to be successful in describing the experimental data (branching ratios, CP asymmetries and time-dependent parameters). Decay magnitudes and relative weak and strong phases have been extracted from the fits. Values of the weak phase $γ$ were found to be consistent with the current indirect bounds from other analy…
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 first review the calculations of low invariant mass dilepton production in relativistic heavy ion collisions, using effective hadronic Lagrangians. We go through some of the theoretical techniques used in this kinematical region and we consider some of the appropriate experimental measurements. Moving up to the intermediate invariant mass region, we point out some of the uncertainties that show up in theoretical estimates. Those originate mainly from off-shell effects. Finally, as an application of hadronic chiral Lagrangians at finite temperature, we compute the mass shifts and mixing of t…
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…
Results for the complete NLO electroweak corrections to Standard Model Higgs production via gluon fusion are included in the total cross section for hadronic collisions. Artificially large threshold effects are avoided working in the complex-mass scheme. The numerical impact at LHC (Tevatron) energies is explored for Higgs mass values up to 500 GeV (200 GeV). Assuming a complete factorization of the electroweak corrections, one finds a +5 % shift with respect to the NNLO QCD cross section for a Higgs mass of 120 GeV both at the LHC and the Tevatron. Adopting two different factorization schemes…
I present the QCD short distance coefficient $η_3$ of the $ΔS=2$ hamiltonian in the \emph{next-to-leading order} (NLO) of renormalization group improved perturbation theory. Since now all QCD-factors $η_1$, $η_2$ and $η_3$ are known with NLO accuracy, a much higher precision in the analysis of $\varepsilon_K$ can be achieved. The CKM phase $δ$, $|V_{td}|$ and the mass difference $Δm_{B_s}$ in the $\text{B}_s^0-\overline{\text{B}}_s^0$-system are predicted from the measured values of $\varepsilon_K$ and $Δm_{B_d}$. Finally I briefly look at the \kkmd. This work has been done in collaboration wi…
We present a next-to-next-to-leading order (NNLO) accurate description of associated HZ production, followed by the Higgs boson decay into a pair of $b$-quarks treated at next-to-leading order (NLO), consistently matched to a parton shower (PS). The matching is achieved by performing reweighting of the $\texttt{HZJ-MiNLO}$ events, using multi-dimensional distributions that are fully-differential in the HZ Born kinematics, to the NNLO results obtained by using the $\texttt{MCFM-8.0}$ fixed-order calculation. Additionally we include the $gg\to\rm{HZ}$ contribution to the discussed process that a…
We report on the calculation of the next-to-leading order QCD corrections to the production of ttbar pairs in association with two hard jets at the Fermilab TeVatron and CERN Large Hadron Collider. Results for the integrated and differential cross sections are given. The corrections with respect to leading order are negative and moderate. A study of the scale dependence of our NLO predictions indicates that the residual theoretical uncertainty, due to higher order corrections, is 21% for the TeVatron and 15% for the LHC. In case of the TeVatron, the forward-backward asymmetry of the top quark …
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…
We review the methods developed for combining the parton shower approximation to QCD with fixed-order perturbation theory, in such a way as to achieve next-to-leading-order (NLO) accuracy for inclusive observables. This has made it possible to generate fully-simulated hadronic final states with the precision and stability of NLO calculations. We explain the underlying theory of the existing methods, MC@NLO and POWHEG, together with their similarities, differences, achievements and limitations. For illustration we mainly compare results on Higgs boson production at the LHC, with particular emph…
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…
