High precision predictions for exclusive $VH$ production at the LHC

Abstract

We present a resummation-improved prediction for $VH$ + 0 jets production at the Large Hadron Collider. We focus on highly-boosted final states in the presence of jet veto to suppress the $t{\bar t}$ background. In this case, conventional fixed-order calculations are plagued by the existence of large Sudakov logarithms $\alpha_s^n \log^m (p_T^{veto}/Q)$ for $Q\sim m_V + m_H$ which lead to unreliable predictions as well as large theoretical uncertainties, and thus limit the accuracy when comparing experimental measurements to the Standard Model. In this work, we show that the resummation of Sudakov logarithms beyond the next-to-next-to-leading-log accuracy, combined with the next-to-next-to-leading order calculation, reduces the scale uncertainty and stabilizes the perturbative expansion in the region where the vector bosons carry large transverse momentum. Our result improves the precision with which Higgs properties can be determined from LHC measurements using boosted Higgs techniques.