Large NLO corrections in $t\bar{t}W^{\pm}$ and $t\bar{t}t\bar{t}$ hadroproduction from supposedly subleading EW contributions

Abstract

We calculate the complete-NLO predictions for $t\bar{t}W^{\pm}$ and $t\bar{t}t\bar{t}$ production in proton--proton collisions at 13 and 100 TeV. All the non-vanishing contributions of $\mathcal{O}(\alpha_s^i \alpha^j)$ with $i+j=3,4$ for $t\bar{t}W^{\pm}$ and $i+j=4,5$ for $t\bar{t}t\bar{t}$ are evaluated without any approximation. For $t\bar{t}W^{\pm}$ we find that, due to the presence of $tW \to tW$ scattering, at 13(100) TeV the $\mathcal{O}(\alpha_s \alpha^3)$ contribution is about 12(70)\% of the LO, i.e., it is larger than the so-called NLO EW corrections (the $\mathcal{O}(\alpha_s^2 \alpha^2)$ terms) and has opposite sign. In the case of $t\bar{t}t\bar{t}$ production, large contributions from electroweak $tt \to tt$ scattering are already present at LO in the $\mathcal{O}(\alpha_s^3 \alpha)$ and $\mathcal{O}(\alpha_s^2 \alpha^2)$ terms. For the same reason we find that both NLO terms of $\mathcal{O}(\alpha_s^4 \alpha)$, i.e., the NLO EW corrections, and $\mathcal{O}(\alpha_s^3 \alpha^2)$ are large ($\pm 15 \%$ of the LO) and their relative contributions strongly depend on the values of the renormalisation and factorisation scales. However, large accidental cancellations are present (away from the threshold region) between these two contributions. Moreover, the NLO corrections strongly depend on the kinematics and are particularly large at the threshold, where even the relative contribution from $\mathcal{O}(\alpha_s^2 \alpha^3)$ terms amounts to tens of percents.