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arXiv · 1408.5243

$W^+W^-$ production at hadron colliders in NNLO QCD

T. Gehrmann·M. Grazzini·S. Kallweit·P. Maierhöfer·A. von Manteuffel·S. Pozzorini·D. Rathlev·L. Tancredi
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Abstract

Charged gauge boson pair production at the Large Hadron Collider allows detailed probes of the fundamental structure of electroweak interactions. We present precise theoretical predictions for on-shell $W^+W^-$ production that include, for the first time, QCD effects up to next-to-next-to-leading order in perturbation theory. As compared to next-to-leading order, the inclusive $W^+W^-$ cross section is enhanced by 9% at 7 TeV and 12% at 14 TeV. The residual perturbative uncertainty is at the 3% level. The severe contamination of the $W^+W^-$ cross section due to top-quark resonances is discussed in detail. Comparing different definitions of top-free $W^+W^-$ production in the four and five flavour number schemes, we demonstrate that top-quark resonances can be separated from the inclusive $W^+W^-$ cross section without significant loss of theoretical precision.

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T. Gehrmann, M. Grazzini, S. Kallweit, P. Maierhöfer, A. von Manteuffel, S. Pozzorini, D. Rathlev, L. Tancredi. 2014-08-22. $W^+W^-$ production at hadron colliders in NNLO QCD. https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevlett.113.212001

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