arXiv subjects

Charalampos Anastasiou

Publications and source records attributed to Charalampos Anastasiou.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2015

The fully differential decay rate of a Higgs boson to bottom-quarks at NNLO in QCD

The decay of a light Higgs boson to bottom quarks is dominant and can be exploited for the discovery of the Higgs particle and the measurement of its properties at the LHC and future collider experiments. We perform a first computation of the fully differential decay at next-next-to-leading order in perturbative QCD. We employ a novel method of non-linear mappings for the treatment of singularities in the radiative processes which contribute to the decay width. This constitutes the first physical application of the method.

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arXiv2014

Higgs boson gluon-fusion production beyond threshold in N3LO QCD

In this article, we compute the gluon fusion Higgs boson cross-section at N3LO through the second term in the threshold expansion. This calculation constitutes a major milestone towards the full N3LO cross section. Our result has the best formal accuracy in the threshold expansion currently available, and includes contributions from collinear regions besides subleading corrections from soft and hard regions, as well as certain logarithmically enhanced contributions for general kinematics. We use our results to perform a critical appraisal of the validity of the threshold approximation at N3LO in perturbative QCD.

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arXiv2014

NNLO QCD corrections to $pp \to γ^* γ^*$ in the large $N_F$ limit

We compute the NNLO QCD corrections for the hadroproduction of a pair of off-shell photons in the limit of a large number of quark flavors. We perform a reduction of the two-loop amplitude to master integrals and calculate the latter analytically as a Laurent series in the dimensional regulator using modern integration methods. Real radiation corrections are evaluated numerically with a direct subtraction of infrared limits which we cast in a simple factorized form. The results presented here constitute a gauge invariant part of the full NNLO corrections but are not necessarily dominant. We view this calculation as a step towards a complete computation. Our partial corrections to the total cross-section are about $1\%-3\%$ and vary with the virtuality of the two off-shell photons.

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arXiv2014

Higgs boson gluon-fusion production at threshold in N3LO QCD

We present the cross-section for the threshold production of the Higgs boson at hadron-colliders at next-to-next-to-next-to-leading order (N3LO) in perturbative QCD. We present an analytic expression for the partonic cross-section at threshold and the impact of these corrections on the numerical estimates for the hadronic cross-section at the LHC. With this result we achieve a major milestone towards a complete evaluation of the cross-section at N3LO which will reduce the theoretical uncertainty in the determination of the strengths of the Higgs boson interactions.

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arXiv2013

Real-Virtual contributions to the inclusive Higgs cross-section at N3LO

We compute the contributions to the N3LO inclusive Higgs boson cross-section from the square of one-loop amplitudes with a Higgs boson and three QCD partons as external states. Our result is a Taylor expansion in the dimensional regulator epsilon, where the coefficients of the expansion are analytic functions of the ratio of the Higgs boson mass and the partonic center of mass energy and they are valid for arbitrary values of this ratio. We also perform a threshold expansion around the limit of soft-parton radiation in the final state. The expressions for the coefficients of the threshold expansion are valid for arbitrary values of the dimension. As a by-product of the threshold expansion calculation, we have developed a soft expansion method at the integrand level by identifying the relevant soft and collinear regions for the loop-momentum.

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arXiv2013

Soft triple-real radiation for Higgs production at N3LO

We present the two first terms in the threshold expansion of Higgs production partonic cross-sections at hadron colliders for processes with three partons in the final state. These are contributions to the inclusive Higgs cross-section in gluon fusion at N3LO. We have developed a new technique for the expansion of the squared matrix-elements around the soft limit and for the reduction of the required phase-space integrals to only ten single-scale master integrals. We compute the master integrals building upon modern techniques for the integration of multidimensional integrals in dimensional regularization. Our results constitute an important step towards a systematic computation of the Higgs boson cross-section as an expansion around the threshold limit.

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arXiv2012

NNLO phase space master integrals for two-to-one inclusive cross sections in dimensional regularization

We evaluate all phase space master integrals which are required for the total cross section of generic 2 -> 1 processes at NNLO as a series expansion in the dimensional regulator epsilon. Away from the limit of threshold production, our expansion includes one order higher than what has been available in the literature. At threshold, we provide expressions which are valid to all orders in terms of Gamma functions and hypergeometric functions. These results are a necessary ingredient for the renormalization and mass factorization of singularities in 2 -> 1 inclusive cross sections at NNNLO in QCD.

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arXiv2012

Inclusive Higgs boson cross-section for the LHC at 8 TeV

We present the inclusive Higgs boson cross-section at the LHC with collision energy of 8 TeV. Our predictions are obtained using our publicly available program iHixs which incorporates NNLO QCD corrections and electroweak corrections. We review the convergence of the QCD perturbative expansion at this new energy and examine the impact of finite Higgs width effects. We also study the impact of different parton distribution functions on the cross-section. We present tables with the cross-section values and estimates for their uncertainty due to uncalculated higher orders in the perturbative expansion and parton densities.

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arXiv2011

Total cross-section for Higgs boson hadroproduction with anomalous Standard Model interactions

We present a new program (iHixs) which computes the inclusive Higgs boson cross-section at hadron colliders. It incorporates QCD corrections through NNLO, real and virtual electroweak corrections, mixed QCD-electroweak corrections, quark-mass effects through NLO in QCD, and finite width effects for the Higgs boson and heavy quarks. iHixs can be used to obtain the most precise cross-section values in fixed order perturbation theory in the Standard Model. In addition, it allows for a consistent evaluation of the cross-section in modified Higgs boson sectors with anomalous Yukawa and electroweak interactions as required in extensions of the Standard Model. iHixs is interfaced with the LHAPDF library and can be used with all available NNLO sets of parton distribution functions.

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arXiv2011

Higgs production cross-section in a Standard Model with four generations at the LHC

We present theoretical predictions for the Higgs boson production cross-section via gluon fusion at the LHC in a Standard Model with four generations. We include QCD corrections through NLO retaining the full dependence on the quark masses, and the NNLO corrections in the heavy quark effective theory approximation. We also include electroweak corrections through three loops. Electroweak and bottom-quark contributions are suppressed in comparison to the Standard Model with three generations.

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arXiv2011

Loop lessons from Wilson loops in N=4 supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory

N=4 supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory exhibits a rather surprising duality of Wilson-loop vacuum expectation values and scattering amplitudes. In this paper, we investigate this correspondence at the diagram level. We find that one-loop triangles, one-loop boxes, and two-loop diagonal boxes can be cast as simple one- and two- parametric integrals over a single propagator in configuration space. We observe that the two-loop Wilson-loop "hard-diagram" corresponds to a four-loop hexagon Feynman diagram. Guided by the diagrammatic correspondence of the configuration-space propagator and loop Feynman diagrams, we derive Feynman parameterizations of complicated planar and non-planar Feynman diagrams which simplify their evaluation. For illustration, we compute numerically a four-loop hexagon scalar Feynman diagram.

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arXiv2011

On the factorization of overlapping singularities at NNLO

Real and virtual corrections in NNLO QCD require multi-dimensional integrals with overlapping singularities. We first review ideas and methods which have been proposed for performing such computations. We then present a new method for the factorization of overlapping singularities based on non-linear integral transformations. We apply this method for the evaluation of all integral topologies which appear in double real radiation corrections in cross-section calculations for the production of a heavy system at hadron colliders. Finally, we demonstrate with typical examples that two-loop virtual corrections are amenable to the same method.

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arXiv2010

Two-Loop Polygon Wilson Loops in N=4 SYM

We compute for the first time the two-loop corrections to arbitrary n-gon lightlike Wilson loops in N=4 supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory, using efficient numerical methods. The calculation is motivated by the remarkable agreement between the finite part of planar six-point MHV amplitudes and hexagon Wilson loops which has been observed at two loops. At n=6 we confirm that the ABDK/BDS ansatz must be corrected by adding a remainder function, which depends only on conformally invariant ratios of kinematic variables. We numerically compute remainder functions for n=7,8 and verify dual conformal invariance. Furthermore, we study simple and multiple collinear limits of the Wilson loop remainder functions and demonstrate that they have precisely the form required by the collinear factorisation of the corresponding two-loop n-point amplitudes. The number of distinct diagram topologies contributing to the n-gon Wilson loops does not increase with n, and there is a fixed number of "master integrals", which we have computed. Thus we have essentially computed general polygon Wilson loops, and if the correspondence with amplitudes continues to hold, all planar n-point two-loop MHV amplitudes in the N=4 theory.

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arXiv2010

The NNLO gluon fusion Higgs production cross-section with many heavy quarks

We consider extensions of the Standard Model with a number of additional heavy quarks which couple to the Higgs boson via top-like Yukawa interactions. We construct an effective theory valid for a Higgs boson mass which is lighter than twice the lightest heavy quark mass and compute the corresponding Wilson coefficient through NNLO. We present numerical results for the gluon fusion cross-section at the Tevatron for an extension of the Standard Model with a fourth generation of heavy quarks. The gluon fusion cross-section is enhanced by a factor of roughly 9 with respect to the Standard Model value. Tevatron experimental data can place stringent exclusion limits for the Higgs mass in this model.

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arXiv2009

HPro: A NLO Monte-Carlo for Higgs production via gluon fusion with finite heavy quark masses

We compute fully differential next-to-leading order QCD cross-sections for Higgs boson production via gluon fusion in the Standard Model. We maintain the full dependence of the cross-sections on the top and bottom quark mass. We find that finite quark mass effects are important given the achieved precision of QCD predictions for gluon fusion. Our Monte-Carlo program, HPro, can correct existing NNLO fully differential calculations, which employ the approximation of an infinitely heavy top and a vanishing bottom quark Yukawa coupling, for heavy quark finite mass effects through NLO.

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arXiv2009

Perturbative QCD effects and the search for a H->WW->l nu l nu signal at the Tevatron

The Tevatron experiments have recently excluded a Standard Model Higgs boson in the mass range 160 - 170 GeV at the 95% confidence level. This result is based on sophisticated analyses designed to maximize the ratio of signal and background cross-sections. In this paper we study the production of a Higgs boson of mass 160 GeV in the gg -> H -> WW -> l nu l nu channel. We choose a set of cuts like those adopted in the experimental analysis and compare kinematical distributions of the final state leptons computed in NNLO QCD to lower-order calculations and to those obtained with the event generators PYTHIA, HERWIG and MC@NLO. We also show that the distribution of the output from an Artificial Neural Network obtained with the different tools does not show significant differences. However, the final acceptance computed with PYTHIA is smaller than those obtained at NNLO and with HERWIG and MC@NLO. We also investigate the impact of the underlying event and hadronization on our results.

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arXiv2009

Realistic Composite Higgs Models

We study the role of fermionic resonances in realistic composite Higgs models. We consider the low energy effective description of a model in which the Higgs arises as the pseudo-Goldstone boson of an SO(5)/SO(4) global symmetry breaking pattern. Assuming that only fermionic resonances are present below the cut-off of our effective theory, we perform a detailed analysis of the electroweak constraints on such a model. This includes the exact one-loop calculation of the T parameter and the anomalous Zbb coupling for arbitrary new fermions and couplings. Other relevant observables, like b to s gamma and Delta B=2 processes have also been examined. We find that, while minimal models are difficult to make compatible with electroweak precision tests, models with several fermionic resonances, such as the ones that appear in the spectrum of viable composite Higgs models from warped extra dimensions, are fully realistic in a large region of parameter space. These fermionic resonances could be the first observable signature of the model at the LHC.

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arXiv2009

Mixed QCD-electroweak corrections to Higgs boson production in gluon fusion

We compute the 3-loop O(αα_s) correction to the Higgs boson production cross section arising from light quarks using an effective theory approach. Our calculation probes the factorization of QCD and electroweak perturbative corrections to this process. We combine our results with the best current estimates for contributions from top and bottom quarks to derive an updated theoretical prediction for the Higgs boson production cross section in gluon fusion. With the use of the MSTW 2008 parton distribution functions that include the newest experimental data, our study results in cross sections approximately 4-6% lower for intermediate Higgs boson masses than those used in recent Tevatron analyses that imposed a 95% confidence level exclusion limit of a Standard Model Higgs boson with M_H=170 GeV.

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