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Arnd Behring

Publications and source records attributed to Arnd Behring.

18 recordsLinked to original sources
arXiv2025

Parton-shower and fixed-order QCD effects in Higgs-boson production in weak-boson fusion and its decays to bottom quarks

Recently, it was observed [arXiv:2407.09363] that an aggressive cut on the $b$-jets' transverse momenta applied to Higgs-boson production in weak-boson fusion followed by the decay $H \to b \bar b$, leads to very large QCD corrections to the fiducial cross section. In this paper we show that these corrections are caused by soft and collinear QCD radiation and, therefore, can be efficiently treated by a parton shower. We combine the parton-shower description of the decay $H \to b \bar b$ with NNLO QCD corrections to Higgs production in weak-boson fusion and its subsequent decay, and demonstrate that the quality of the theoretical prediction is markedly improved even if $b$-jets with rather high transverse momenta are selected. The remaining uncertainty of the theoretical prediction, mainly driven by imprecise modelling of $H \to b \bar b$ decay, is estimated to be of the order of $\mathcal{O}(5{-}7\%)$.

hep-ph↗
arXiv2025

Flavoured jet algorithms: a comparative study

The accurate identification of heavy-flavour jets, those which originate from bottom or charm quarks, is crucial for precision studies of the Standard Model and searches for new physics. However, assigning flavour to jets presents significant challenges, primarily due to issues with infrared and collinear (IRC) safety. This paper aims to address these challenges by evaluating recently-proposed jet algorithms designed to be IRC-safe and applicable in high-precision measurements. We compare these algorithms across benchmark heavy-flavour production processes and kinematic regimes that are relevant for LHC phenomenology. Exploiting both fixed-order calculations in QCD as well as parton shower simulations, we analyse the infrared sensitivity of these new algorithms at different stages of the event evolution and compare to flavour-labelling strategies currently adopted by LHC collaborations. The results highlight that, while all algorithms lead to more robust flavour-assignments compared to current techniques, they vary in performance depending on the observable and energy regime. The study lays groundwork for robust, flavour-aware jet analyses in current and future collider experiments to maximise the physics potential of experimental data by reducing discrepancies between theoretical and experimental methods.

hep-ph↗
arXiv2024

Four-loop two-mass tadpoles and the $\rho$ parameter

We calculate four-loop QCD corrections to the electroweak $\rho$ parameter with a non-vanishing $b$ quark mass. At three loops, it was observed that elliptic integrals contribute to this observable. This prompts the question of which classes of functions appear at the next order. We report on the status of our calculation with a focus on the mathematical structures that emerge at four loops.

hep-ph↗
arXiv2024

QCD corrections to Higgs boson production and $H \to b \bar{b}$ decay in weak boson fusion

We study QCD corrections to the process where a Higgs boson is produced in weak boson fusion and then decays into a pair of massive $b$ quarks. We find that typical experimental criteria used to identify $b$ jets in this process affect QCD corrections to the decay, making it necessary to account for them in the proper description of this process. Indeed, if corrections to the production and decay are combined, the fiducial cross section of the weak boson fusion process $p p \to H(\to b \bar{b}) j j$ is reduced by about $40\%$ relative to leading-order predictions, compared to just about $8\%$ if only corrections to the production process are considered. We investigate the origin of these large corrections through next-to-next-to-leading-order and conclude that they appear because a number of independent moderately-large effects conspire to significantly reduce the fiducial cross section for this process.

hep-ph↗
arXiv2022

Beam functions for $N$-jettiness at N$^3$LO in perturbative QCD

We present a calculation of all matching coefficients for $N$-jettiness beam functions at next-to-next-to-next-to-leading order (N$^3$LO) in perturbative quantum chromodynamics (QCD). Our computation is performed starting from the respective collinear splitting kernels, which we integrate using the axial gauge. We use reverse unitarity to map the relevant phase-space integrals to loop integrals, which allows us to employ multi-loop techniques including integration-by-parts identities and differential equations. We find a canonical basis and use an algorithm to establish non-trivial partial fraction relations among the resulting master integrals, which allows us to reduce their number substantially. By use of regularity conditions, we express all necessary boundary constants in terms of an independent set, which we compute by direct integration of the corresponding integrals in the soft limit. In this way, we provide an entirely independent calculation of the matching coefficients which were previously computed in arXiv:2006.03056.

hep-ph↗
arXiv2022

Zero-jettiness beam functions at N$^3$LO

The zero-jettiness beam functions describe collinear emissions from initial state legs and appear in the factorisation theorem for cross sections in the limit of small zero-jettiness. They are an important building block for slicing schemes for colour-singlet production at hadron colliders. We report on our ongoing calculation of this quantity at next-to-next-to-next-to-leading order (N$^3$LO) in QCD, highlighting in particular the aspects of partial fraction relations and the calculation of master integrals.

hep-ph↗
arXiv2021

Estimating the impact of mixed QCD-electroweak corrections on the $W$-mass determination at the LHC

We study the impact of the recently computed mixed QCD-electroweak corrections to the production of $W$ and $Z$ bosons at the LHC on the value of the $W$ mass extracted from the transverse momentum distribution of charged leptons from $W$ decays. Using the average lepton transverse momenta in $W$ and $Z$ decays as simplified observables for the determination of the $W$ mass, we estimate that mixed QCD-electroweak corrections can shift the extracted value of the $W$ mass by up to ${\cal O}(20)~{\rm MeV}$, depending on the kinematic cuts employed to define fiducial cross sections for $Z$ and $W$ production. Since the target precision of the $W$-mass measurement at the LHC is ${\cal O}(10)~{\rm MeV}$, our results emphasize the need for fully-differential computations of mixed QCD-electroweak corrections and a careful analysis of their potential impact on the determination of the $W$ mass.

hep-ph↗
arXiv2020

Mixed QCD-electroweak corrections to W-boson production in hadron collisions

We compute mixed QCD-electroweak corrections to the fully-differential production of an on-shell $W$ boson. Decays of $W$ bosons to lepton pairs are included in the leading order approximation. The required two-loop virtual corrections are computed analytically for arbitrary values of the electroweak gauge boson masses. Analytic results for integrated subtraction terms are obtained within a soft-collinear subtraction scheme optimized to accommodate the structural simplicity of infra-red singularities of mixed QCD-electroweak contributions. Numerical results for mixed corrections to the fiducial cross section of $pp \to W^+ \to l^+ \nu$ and selected kinematic distributions in this process are presented.

hep-ph↗
arXiv2020

Bottom quark mass effects in associated $WH$ production with $H \to b\bar{b}$ decay through NNLO QCD

We present a computation of NNLO QCD corrections to the production of a Higgs boson in association with a $W$ boson at the LHC followed by the decay of the Higgs boson to a $b\bar{b}$ pair. At variance with previous NNLO QCD studies of the same process, we treat $b$ quarks as massive. An important advantage of working with massive $b$ quarks is that it makes the use of flavor jet algorithms unnecessary and allows us to employ conventional jet algorithms to define $b$ jets. We compare NNLO QCD descriptions of the associated $WH(b\bar{b})$ production with massive and massless $b$ quarks and also contrast them with the results provided by parton showers. We find ${\cal O}(5\%)$ differences in fiducial cross sections computed with massless and massive $b$ quarks. We also observe that much larger differences between massless and massive results, as well as between fixed-order and parton-shower results, can arise in selected kinematic distributions.

hep-ph↗
arXiv2019

Higgs decay into massive b-quarks at NNLO QCD in the nested soft-collinear subtraction scheme

We present a fully differential description of a decay of a scalar Higgs boson into massive b-quarks valid at next-to-next-to-leading order (NNLO) in perturbative quantum chromodynamics (QCD). We work within the nested soft-collinear subtraction scheme extended to accommodate massive partons. We include the loop-induced contribution involving a Higgs coupling to a top quark. We test our calculation against results existing in the literature, comparing the predictions for the total decay width and jet rates.

hep-ph↗
arXiv2019

Quark beam function at next-to-next-to-next-to-leading order in perturbative QCD in the generalized large-$N_c$ approximation

We present the matching coefficient for the quark beam function at next-to-next-to-next-to-leading order in perturbative QCD in the generalized large $N_c$-approximation, $N_c \sim N_f \gg 1$. Although several refinements are still needed to make this result interesting for phenomenological applications, our computation shows that a fully-differential description of simple color singlet production processes at a hadron collider at N$^3$LO in perturbative QCD is within reach.

hep-ph↗
arXiv2019

Higher order corrections to spin correlations in top quark pair production at the LHC

We calculate, for the first time, the next-to-next-to leading order (NNLO) QCD corrections to spin correlations in top quark pair production at the LHC. The NNLO corrections play an important role in the description of the corresponding differential distributions. We observe that the Standard Model calculation describes the available delta-phi data in the fiducial region but does not agree with the delta-phi measurement extrapolated to full phase space. Most likely this discrepancy is due to the difference in precision between existing event generators and NNLO calculations for dilepton top-pair final states.

hep-ph↗
arXiv2018

Sector-improved residue subtraction: Improvements and Applications

We discuss two recent developments of the sector-improved residue subtraction scheme for handling real radiation at NNLO in QCD. We present a new phase space construction which minimizes the number phase space configurations for subtraction terms and we rederive the four-dimensional formulation of the scheme.

hep-ph↗
arXiv2016

Heavy flavour corrections to polarised and unpolarised deep-inelastic scattering at 3-loop order

We report on progress in the calculation of 3-loop corrections to the deep-inelastic structure functions from massive quarks in the asymptotic region of large momentum transfer $Q^2$. Recently completed results allow us to obtain the $O(a_s^3)$ contributions to several heavy flavour Wilson coefficients which enter both polarised and unpolarised structure functions for lepton-nucleon scattering. In particular, we obtain the non-singlet contributions to the unpolarised structure functions $F_2(x,Q^2)$ and $x F_3(x,Q^2)$ and the polarised structure function $g_1(x,Q^2)$. From these results we also obtain the heavy flavour contributions to the Gross-Llewellyn-Smith and the Bjorken sum rules.

hep-ph↗
arXiv2016

Algorithms to solve coupled systems of differential equations in terms of power series

Using integration by parts relations, Feynman integrals can be represented in terms of coupled systems of differential equations. In the following we suppose that the unknown Feynman integrals can be given in power series representations, and that sufficiently many initial values of the integrals are given. Then there exist algorithms that decide constructively if the coefficients of their power series representations can be given within the class of nested sums over hypergeometric products. In this article we will work out the calculation steps that solve this problem. First, we will present a successful tactic that has been applied recently to challenging problems coming from massive 3-loop Feynman integrals. Here our main tool is to solve scalar linear recurrences within the class of nested sums over hypergeometric products. Second, we will present a new variation of this tactic which relies on more involved summation technologies but succeeds in reducing the problem to solve scalar recurrences with lower recurrence orders. The article will work out the different challenges of this new tactic and demonstrates how they can be treated efficiently with our existing summation technologies.

cs.SC↗
arXiv2012

Squark Flavor Implications from B --> K(*) l+ l-

Recent experimental and theoretical progress regarding B --> K(*) l+ l- decays led to improved bounds on the Wilson coefficients C_9 and C_10 of four-fermion operators of the |Delta B|=|Delta S|=1 effective Hamiltonian. We analyze the resulting implications on squark flavor violation in the MSSM and obtain new constraints on flavor-changing left-right mixing in the up-squark-sector. We find the dimensionless flavor mixing parameter (delta^u_23)_LR, depending on the flavor-diagonal MSSM masses and couplings, to be as low as \lesssim 0.1. This has implications for models based on radiative flavor violation and leads to BR(B_s --> mu+ mu-) \gtrsim 1 x 10^-9. Rare top decays t --> c gamma, t --> c g, t --> c Z have branching ratios predicted to be below \lesssim few times 10^-8, 10^-6 and 10^-7, respectively.

hep-ph↗