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B. A. Kniehl

Publications and source records attributed to B. A. Kniehl.

At least 145 records · Page 8Linked to original sources
arXiv1999

Inclusive J/psi and psi(2S) Production from B Decay in p p-bar Collisions

Using information on B-meson fragmentation functions from CERN LEP 1 and adopting the nonrelativistic QCD factorization formalism proposed by Bodwin, Braaten, and Lepage, we predict the transverse-momentum distribution of J/psi mesons originating from the inclusive decays of b hadrons produced in p p-bar collisions at the Fermilab Tevatron. We determine the relevant colour-octet charmonium matrix elements from fits to CDF data on prompt charmonium hadroproduction and to CLEO data on charmonium production from B-meson decay. Our predictions are found to agree well with recent CDF and D0 data.

hep-ph↗
arXiv1998

Decoupling relations, effective Lagrangians and low-energy theorems

If QCD is renormalized by minimal subtraction (MS), at higher orders, the strong coupling constant alpha_s and the quark masses m_q exhibit discontinuities at the flavour thresholds, which are controlled by so-called decoupling constants, zeta_g and zeta_m, respectively. Adopting the modified MS (MS-bar) scheme, we derive simple formulae which reduce the calculation of zeta_g and zeta_m to the solution of vacuum integrals. This allows us to evaluate zeta_g and zeta_m through three loops. We also establish low-energy theorems, valid to all orders, which relate the effective couplings of the Higgs boson to gluons and light quarks, due to the virtual presence of a heavy quark h, to the logarithmic derivatives w.r.t. m_h of zeta_g and zeta_m, respectively. We also consider the effective QCD interaction of a CP-odd Higgs boson and verify the Adler-Bardeen nonrenormalization theorem at three loops.

hep-ph↗
arXiv1998

Mass and Width of a Heavy Higgs Boson

The gauge dependence of the Higgs-boson mass and width in the on-shell scheme of renormalization is studied in the heavy-Higgs-boson approximation. The corresponding expansions in the pole scheme are analyzed adopting three frequently employed parametrizations. The convergence properties and other theoretical features of the on-shell and pole expansions, as well as their relative merits, are discussed.

hep-ph↗
arXiv1998

W^+- H^-+ Associated Production at the Large Hadron Collider

We study the production of a charged Higgs boson in association with a W boson at the CERN Large Hadron Collider in the context of the minimal supersymmetric extension of the standard model. This production mechanism is particularly promising if the charged Higgs boson is too heavy to be generated by top-quark decay. We compare the contributions due to b b-bar annihilation at the tree level and gg fusion, which proceeds at one loop. Apart from the total cross section, we also consider distributions in transverse momentum and rapidity. We also assess the viability of W^+- H^-+ associated production at the Fermilab Tevatron after the installation of the Main Injector and the Recycler.

hep-ph↗
arXiv1998

Effective QCD Interactions of CP-odd Higgs Bosons at Three Loops

In the virtual presence of a heavy quark t, the interactions of a CP-odd scalar boson A, with mass M_A << 2M_t, with gluons and light quarks can be described by an effective Lagrangian. We analytically derive the coefficient functions of the respective physical operators to three loops in quantum chromodynamics (QCD), adopting the modified minimal-subtraction (MS-bar) scheme of dimensional regularization. Special attention is paid to the proper treatment of the gamma_5 matrix and the Levi-Civita epsilon tensor in D dimensions. In the case of the effective ggA coupling, we find agreement with an all-order prediction based on a low-energy theorem in connection with the Adler-Bardeen non-renormalization theorem. This effective Lagrangian allows us to analytically evaluate the next-to-leading QCD correction to the A -> gg partial decay width by considering massless diagrams. For M_A = 100GeV, the resulting correction factor reads 1+(221/12)alpha_s^(5)(M_A)/pi +165.9(alpha_s^(5)(M_A)/pi)^2 approx 1+0.68+0.23. We compare this result with predictions based on various scale-optimization methods.

hep-ph↗
arXiv1998

Differences Between the Pole and On-Shell Masses and Widths of the Higgs Boson

The differences between the on-shell mass and width of the Higgs boson and their pole counterparts are evaluated in leading order. For a heavy Higgs boson, they are found to be sensitive functions of the gauge parameter and become numerically large over a class of gauges that includes the unitary gauge. For a light Higgs boson, the differences remain small in all gauges. The pinch-technique mass and width are found to be close to their pole counterparts over a large range of Higgs boson masses.

hep-ph↗
arXiv1998

Inclusive B-Meson Production in e^+ e^- and p p-bar Collisions

We provide nonperturbative fragmentation functions for B mesons, both at leading and next-to-leading order in the MS-bar factorization scheme with five massless quark flavors. They are determined by fitting the fractional energy distribution of B mesons inclusively produced in e^+ e^- annihilation at CERN LEP1. Theoretical predictions for the inclusive production of B mesons with high transverse momenta in p p-bar scattering obtained with these fragmentation functions nicely agree, both in shape and normalization, with data recently taken at the Fermilab Tevatron.

hep-ph↗
arXiv1997

Predictions for D^*+- Photoproduction at HERA with New Fragmentation Functions from LEP1

We present new sets of nonperturbative fragmentation functions for D^*+- mesons, both at leading and next-to-leading order in the MS-bar factorization scheme with five massless quark flavors. They are determined by fitting the latest OPAL and ALEPH data on inclusive D^*+- production in e^+e^- annihilation. We take the charm-quark fragmentation function to be of the form proposed by Peterson et al. and thus obtain new values of the epsilon_c parameter, which are specific for our choice of factorization scheme. With these fragmentation functions, recent data on inclusive D^*+- photoproduction in ep collisions at HERA are reasonably well reproduced.

hep-ph↗
arXiv1997

Two-Loop Electroweak Heavy-Fermion Corrections to Higgs-Boson Production and Decay

The dominant electroweak corrections to the production cross sections and partial decay widths of a light Standard-Model Higgs boson, with mass M_H << 2m_t, are due to top-quark loops. By means of a low-energy theorem, we study at the two-loop level the leading shifts in the Higgs-boson couplings to pairs of light fermions and gauge bosons induced by a sequential isodoublet of high-mass fermions. For tree-level and loop-induced Higgs-boson couplings, these corrections are of relative orders O(G_mu^2 m_F^4) and O(G_mu m_F^2), respectively, where m_F represents a generic heavy-fermion mass, with m_F >> M_W, M_H. Except for the Hbb-bar coupling, all results carry over to the case of the top-quark-induced corrections. We discuss possible phenomenological consequences of our results.

hep-ph↗
arXiv1997

Coherent Description of D^{*+-} Production in e^+e^- and Low-Q^2 ep Collisions

We present new sets of fragmentation functions for D^{*+-} mesons, both at leading and next-to-leading order. They are determined by fitting LEP1 data on inclusive D^{*+-} production in e^+e^- annihilation. In one of the sets, we take the charm-quark fragmentation function to be of the form proposed by Peterson et al. and thus obtain updated values of the epsilon_c parameter and the c -> D^{*+} branching ratio. The new fragmentation functions lead to an excellent description of other e^+e^- data with centre-of-mass energies between 10 and 35 GeV. They also nicely agree with recent HERA data on inclusive D^{*+-} photoproduction in ep collisions, which may be considered as a test of the universality of the fragmentation into D^{*+-} mesons.

hep-ph↗
arXiv1997

Large-p_T Photoproduction of D^*+- Mesons in ep Collisions

The cross section for the inclusive photoproduction of large-p_T D^*+- mesons is calculated at next-to-leading order, adopting different approaches to describe the fragmentation of charm quarks into D^*+- mesons. We treat the charm quark according to the massless factorization scheme, where it is assumed to be one of the active flavours inside the proton and the photon. We present inclusive single-particle distributions in transverse momentum and rapidity, including the contributions due to both direct and resolved photons. We compare and assess the various implementations of fragmentation. We argue that, in the high-p_T regime, a particularly realistic description can be obtained by convoluting the Altarelli-Parisi-evolved fragmentation functions of Peterson et al. with the hard-scattering cross sections of massless partons where the factorization of the collinear singularities associated with final-state charm quarks is converted to the massive-charm scheme. The predictions thus obtained agree well with recent experimental data by the H1 and ZEUS Collaborations at DESY HERA.

hep-ph↗
arXiv1997

Loop Effects of Exotic Leptons on Vector-Boson Pair Production at e^+e^- Colliders

We study quantum effects of exotic heavy leptons on the production of two vector bosons in e^+e^- annihilation. We present closed analytic expressions for vector-boson self-couplings and differential cross sections, within the framework of two favourable new-physics scenarios: (i) the fourth-generation Majorana-neutrino model and (ii) an E_6-inspired model with sequential mirror isodoublets. We constrain these models by requiring that their contributions to the oblique electroweak parameters be compatible with a recent global fit to high-precision data. We then systematically analyze the loop-induced deviations in the LEP2 cross section of e^+e^- -> W^+W^- predicted by the models thus confined.

hep-ph↗
arXiv1997

Decoupling Relations to O(alpha_s^3) and their Connection to Low-Energy Theorems

If quantum chromodynamics (QCD) is renormalized by minimal subtraction (MS), at higher orders, the strong coupling constant alpha_s and the quark masses m_q exhibit discontinuities at the flavour thresholds, which are controlled by so-called decoupling constants, zeta_g and zeta_m, respectively. Adopting the modified MS (MS-bar) scheme, we derive simple formulae which reduce the calculation of zeta_g and zeta_m to the solution of vacuum integrals. This allows us to evaluate zeta_g and zeta_m through three loops. We also establish low-energy theorems, valid to all orders, which relate the effective couplings of the Higgs boson to gluons and light quarks, due to the virtual presence of a heavy quark h, to the logarithmic derivatives w.r.t. m_h of zeta_g and zeta_m, respectively. Fully exploiting present knowledge of the anomalous dimensions of alpha_s and m_q, we thus calculate these effective couplings through four loops. Finally, we perform a similar analysis for the coupling of the Higgs boson to photons.

hep-ph↗
arXiv1997

Strong Coupling Constant with Flavour Thresholds at Four Loops in the MS-bar Scheme

We present in analytic form the matching conditions for the strong coupling constant alpha_s^(n_f)(mu) at the flavour thresholds to three loops in the modified minimal-subtraction scheme. Taking into account the recently calculated coefficient beta_3 of the Callan-Symanzik beta function of quantum chromodynamics, we thus derive a four-loop formula for alpha_s^(n_f)(mu) together with appropriate relationships between the asymptotic scale parameters Lambda^(n_f) for different numbers of flavours n_f.

hep-ph↗
arXiv1997

Higgs Decay to Order α_s^4

We present in analytic form the three-loop O(α_s^2) correction to the H -> gg partial width of the standard-model Higgs boson with intermediate mass M_H << 2 M_t. Its knowledge is required because the O(α_s) correction is so sizeable that the theoretical prediction to this order is unlikely to be reliable. For M_H=100 GeV, the resulting QCD correction factor reads $1+(215/12)α_s^{(5)}(M_H)/π+150.419 (α_s^{(5)}(M_H)/π)^2 \approx 1+0.66+0.21$. The new three-loop correction increases the Higgs-boson hadronic width by an amount of order 1%.

hep-ph↗
arXiv1997

Three-Loop O(alpha_s^2 G_F M_t^2) Corrections to Hadronic Higgs Decays

We calculate the top-quark-induced three-loop corrections of O(alpha_s^2 G_F M_t^2) to the Yukawa couplings of the first five quark flavours in the framework of the minimal standard model with an intermediate-mass Higgs boson, with mass M_H << 2M_t. The calculation is performed using an effective-Lagrangian approach implemented with the hard-mass procedure. As an application, we derive the O(alpha_s^2 G_F M_t^2) corrections to the H -> q q-bar partial decay widths, including the case q=b. The couplings of the Higgs boson to pairs of leptons and intermediate bosons being known to O(alpha_s^2 G_F M_t^2), this completes the knowledge of such corrections in the Higgs sector. We express the results both in the MS-bar and on-shell schemes of mass renormalization. We recover the notion that the QCD perturbation expansions exhibit a worse convergence behaviour in the on-shell scheme than they do in the MS-bar scheme.

hep-ph↗
arXiv1996

Virtual Top-Quark Effects on the H->bb-bar Decay at Next-to-Leading Order in QCD

By means of a heavy-top-quark effective Lagrangian, we calculate the three-loop corrections of O(alpha_s^2 G_F M_t^2) to the H->bb-bar partial decay width of the standard-model Higgs boson with intermediate mass M_H<<2M_t. We take advantage of a soft-Higgs theorem to construct the relevant coefficient functions. We present our result both in the MS-bar and on-shell schemes of mass renormalization. The MS-bar formulation turns out to be favourable with regard to the convergence behaviour. We also test a recent idea concerning the naive non-abelianization of QCD.

hep-ph↗