arXiv subjects

Alessandro Vicini

Publications and source records attributed to Alessandro Vicini.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Towards the two-loop electroweak corrections to the Drell-Yan process: the complete fermionic contributions

We discuss the production of a lepton pair in quark-antiquark annihilation in the electroweak Standard Model. We present the ultraviolet-renormalised and infrared-subtracted finite contribution of the complete set of second-order virtual corrections with a closed fermionic loop, to the cross section of the process $u\bar u\to \mu^+\mu^-$. The evaluation of these contributions is based on an automated methodology, whose validity is discussed with explicit tests. These corrections are one of the building blocks necessary for the simulation of the inclusive lepton-pair production cross section at next-to-next-to-leading order in the electroweak interaction.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2026

Three loop QCD corrections to electroweak radiative parameters

We reevaluate the vacuum polarization functions for electroweak gauge bosons at three loops in QCD, employing state-of-the-art perturbative techniques. We apply these results to determine the ${\mathcal{O}}(\alpha \alpha_s^2)$ corrections to the electroweak radiative parameters $\Delta\rho$, $\Delta r$ and $\Delta \kappa$. We improve the accuracy of the calculation at this perturbative order, compared to the existing literature, and present some phenomenological implications of these results. We find a shift in the prediction of the $W$ boson mass, significant in view of the FCC precision targets. We improve the prediction of the $\overline{\mathrm{MS}}$ electric charge at $q^2=m_Z^2$ with the inclusion of these ${\mathcal{O}}(\alpha \alpha_s^2)$ corrections.

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arXiv2025

Towards the two-loop electroweak corrections to the Drell-Yan process: the infrared structure

We discuss the lepton-pair production process in Quantum Electrodynamics. We present the ultraviolet-renormalised and infrared-subtracted finite contribution of the second-order virtual corrections to the inclusive lepton-pair production cross section $u\bar u\to e^+e^-$. The results are obtained within a new computational framework, OCEANN, developed in view of the evaluation of the exact two-loop electroweak virtual corrections to high-energy scattering processes. One of the key methodological features in this approach is the representation of the scattering amplitude with arbitrary precision at every stage of the calculation. The analysis in QED allows us to address the treatment of the infrared structure of the process and it can be easily extended to the complete electroweak Standard Model case. The perfect agreement with the literature, for this subset of corrections, provides a non trivial validation of the general framework.

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arXiv2025

Z-boson quantum tomography at next-to-leading order

We investigate the origin of the unusually large electroweak (EW) radiative effects observed in the extraction of the spin-density matrix and related observables at colliders, focusing on leptonic Z-boson decays. We compute the Z-boson-decay spin-density matrix at next-to-leading order (NLO) and find that, while its analytic structure remains essentially unchanged with respect to leading order, the EW corrections induce a sizeable $-35\%$ shift in the spin-analysing-power parameter $\eta_\ell$. This effect alone accounts for the striking size of the corrections. For boosted Z bosons, we further show that the treatment of photon radiation in lepton-dressing algorithms significantly affects the extraction of spin-density-matrix coefficients at NLO and must be carefully controlled. To address these challenges, we propose a quantum tomography procedure that is applicable to any final state with one or more on-shell Z bosons that is robust under higher-order corrections. We illustrate its validity and limitations in ${\textrm{pp}} \to {\textrm{ZZ}} \to 4\ell$ and in heavy ($M_{\textrm{H}}>2 M_{\textrm{Z}}$) Higgs-boson decay ${\textrm{H}}\to {\textrm{ZZ}} \to 4\ell$.

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arXiv2025

Quantum Information meets High-Energy Physics: Input to the update of the European Strategy for Particle Physics

Some of the most astonishing and prominent properties of Quantum Mechanics, such as entanglement and Bell nonlocality, have only been studied extensively in dedicated low-energy laboratory setups. The feasibility of these studies in the high-energy regime explored by particle colliders was only recently shown and has gathered the attention of the scientific community. For the range of particles and fundamental interactions involved, particle colliders provide a novel environment where quantum information theory can be probed, with energies exceeding by about 12 orders of magnitude those employed in dedicated laboratory setups. Furthermore, collider detectors have inherent advantages in performing certain quantum information measurements, and allow for the reconstruction of the state of the system under consideration via quantum state tomography. Here, we elaborate on the potential, challenges, and goals of this innovative and rapidly evolving line of research and discuss its expected impact on both quantum information theory and high-energy physics.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2024

Mixed QCD-EW corrections to the neutral-current Drell-Yan process

We report on the complete computation of the mixed QCD-electroweak corrections to the neutral-current Drell-Yan process. Our calculation holds in the entire range of dilepton invariant masses. We present phenomenological results for several kinematical distributions in the case of bare muons both in the resonant region and for high invariant masses. We also consider the forward-backward asymmetry, which is a key observable to measure the weak mixing angle. We finally extend our calculation to dressed leptons and compare our results in the massless limit to those available in the literature.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2024

From angular coefficients to quantum observables: a phenomenological appraisal in di-boson systems

Motivated by the growing interest in accessing the spin structure of multi-boson processes and in measuring quantum entanglement at high energies, we study polarisation and spin-correlation coefficients in di-boson systems. We show that higher-order corrections of QCD and electroweak type, off-shell modelling, and realistic effects such as fiducial selections and neutrino reconstruction are unavoidable to properly determine such coefficients, and consequently to provide a sound interpretation of observables sensitive to quantum entanglement and Bell-inequality violation. Our findings are based on a detailed phenomenological analysis of boson pairs at the LHC, either in inclusive electroweak production or coming from Higgs-boson decays.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2024

Two-loop mixed QCD-EW corrections to charged current Drell-Yan

We present the two-loop mixed strong-electroweak virtual corrections to the charged current Drell-Yan process. The final-state collinear singularities are regularised by the lepton mass. The evaluation of all the relevant Feynman integrals, including those with up to two different internal massive lines, has been worked out relying on semi-analytical techniques, using complex-valued masses. We can provide, at any arbitrary phase-space point, the solution as a power series in the $W$-boson mass, around a reference value. Starting from these expansions, we can prepare a numerical grid for any value of the $W$-boson mass within their radius of convergence in a negligible amount of time.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2024

Determination of the $W$-boson mass at hadron colliders

We introduce an observable relevant for the determination of the $W$-boson mass $m_W$ at hadron colliders. This observable is defined as an asymmetry around the jacobian peak of the charged-lepton transverse-momentum distribution in the charged-current Drell-Yan process. We discuss the observable's theoretical prediction, presenting results at different orders in QCD, and showing its perturbative stability. Its definition as a single scalar number and its linear sensitivity to $m_W$ allow a clean extraction of the latter and a straightforward discussion of the associated theoretical systematics: a perturbative QCD uncertainty of ${\cal O}(\pm 5)$ MeV on $m_W$ can be established by means of this observable, relying solely on charged-current Drell-Yan information. Owing to its relatively inclusive nature, the observable displays desirable properties also from the experimental viewpoint, especially for the unfolding of detector effects. We show that a measurement of this observable can lead to a competitive experimental error on $m_W$ at the LHC.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2024

Probing the weak mixing angle at high energies at the LHC and HL-LHC

Measurements of neutral current Drell-Yan production at large invariant dilepton masses can be used to test the energy scale dependence (running) of the electroweak mixing angle. In this work, we make use of a novel implementation of the full next-to-leading order electroweak radiative corrections to the Drell-Yan process using the $\overline{\mathrm{MS}}$ renormalization scheme for the electroweak mixing angle. The potential of future analyses using proton-proton collisions at $\sqrt{s}=13.6~\mathrm{TeV}$ in the Run 3 and High-Luminosity phases of the LHC is explored. In this way, the Standard Model predictions for the $\overline{\mathrm{MS}}$ running at $\mathrm{TeV}$ scales can be probed.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2023

A new observable for $W$-mass determination

In this contribution we discuss the properties of the jacobian asymmetry, the new observable introduced in hep-ph/2301.04059 for a robust determination of the value and uncertainty of the $W$-boson mass at hadron colliders.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2023

Compatibility and combination of world W-boson mass measurements

The compatibility of W-boson mass measurements performed by the ATLAS, LHCb, CDF, and D0 experiments is studied using a coherent framework with theory uncertainty correlations. The measurements are combined using a number of recent sets of parton distribution functions (PDF), and are further combined with the average value of measurements from the Large Electron-Positron collider. The considered PDF sets generally have a low compatibility with a suite of global rapidity-sensitive Drell-Yan measurements. The most compatible set is CT18 due to its larger uncertainties. A combination of all mW measurements yields a value of mW = 80394.6 +- 11.5 MeV with the CT18 set, but has a probability of compatibility of 0.5% and is therefore disfavoured. Combinations are performed removing each measurement individually, and a 91% probability of compatibility is obtained when the CDF measurement is removed. The corresponding value of the W boson mass is 80369.2 +- 13.3 MeV, which differs by 3.6 sigma from the CDF value determined using the same PDF set.

hep-ex↗

arXiv2023

Probing the weak mixing angle at high energy

The weak mixing angle is a probe of the vector-axial coupling structure of electroweak interactions. It has been measured precisely at the $Z$-pole by experiments at the LEP and SLD colliders, but its energy dependence above $M_Z$ remains unconstrained. In this contribution we propose to exploit measurements of Neutral-Current Drell Yan at large invariant dilepton masses at the Large Hadron Collider, to determine the scale dependence of the weak mixing angle in the $\overline{MS}$ renormalisation scheme, $\sin^2 θ_w^{\overline{MS}}(μ)$. Such a measurement can be used to test the Standard Model predictions for the $\overline{MS}$ running at TeV scales, and to set model-independent constraints on new states with electroweak quantum numbers. To this end, we present an implementation of $\sin^2 θ_w^{\overline{MS}}(μ)$ in the POWHEG-BOX Monte Carlo event generator, which we use to explore the potential of future analyses with the LHC Run~3 and High-Luminosity datasets. In particular, the impact of the higher order corrections and of the uncertainties due to the knowledge of parton distribution functions are studied.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2022

Probing the Weak Mixing Angle at high energies at the LHC

The electroweak mixing angle is a fundamental parameter of the theory of electroweak interactions. Its value has been measured precisely at the $\mathrm{Z}$-pole at colliders. In this contribution, we propose to exploit measurements of Neutral-Current Drell-Yan production at the Large Hadron Collider at large invariant dilepton masses to determine the energy scale dependence (running) of the electroweak mixing angle in the $\bar{\text{MS}}$ renormalisation scheme, $\sin^2θ_{W,\ell}^{\bar{\text{MS}}}(μ)$. Such a measurement can be used to confirm the Standard Model predictions for the $\bar{\text{MS}}$ running at $\text{TeV}$ scales, and to set model-independent constraints on new states with electroweak quantum numbers. To this end, we make use of a dedicated implementation of $\sin^2θ_{W,\ell}^{\bar{\text{MS}}}(μ)$ in the POWHEG-BOX-V2 Monte Carlo event generator, which we use to explore the potential of future analyses using the data of the LHC Run 3 and High-Luminosity.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2022

Evaluation of Feynman integrals with arbitrary complex masses via series expansions

We present an algorithm to evaluate multiloop Feynman integrals with an arbitrary number of internal massive lines, with the masses being in general complex-valued, and its implementation in the \textsc{Mathematica} package \textsc{SeaSyde}. The implementation solves by series expansions the system of differential equations satisfied by the Master Integrals. At variance with respect to other existing codes, the analytical continuation of the solution is performed in the complex plane associated to each kinematical invariant. We present the results of the evaluation of the Master Integrals relevant for the NNLO QCD-EW corrections to the neutral-current Drell-Yan processes.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2022

Two-loop mixed QCD-EW corrections to neutral current Drell-Yan

We present the two-loop mixed strong-electroweak virtual corrections to the neutral current Drell-Yan process and we provide, in ancillary files, the explicit formulae of the infrared-subtracted finite remainder. The final state collinear singularities are regularised by the lepton mass. The evaluation of all the relevant Feynman integrals, including those with up to two internal massive lines, has been worked out relying on analytical and semi-analytical techniques, in the case of complex-valued masses.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2021

Electroweak input parameters

Different sets of electroweak input parameters are discussed for SMEFT predictions at the LHC. The {Gmu,mZ,mW} one is presently recommended.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2021

On-shell Z boson production through ${\cal O}(αα_s)$

The analytical expressions of the mixed QCD-EW corrections to on-shell Z boson inclusive production cross section at hadron colliders are presented, together with computational details. The results are given in terms of polylogarithmic functions and elliptic integrals. The impact on the prediction of the Z boson production total cross section is discussed, comparing different proton parton density sets.

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