arXiv subjects

Dieter Zeppenfeld

Publications and source records attributed to Dieter Zeppenfeld.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2024

Release Note -- VBFNLO 3.0

VBFNLO is a flexible parton level Monte Carlo program for the simulation of vector boson fusion (VBF), QCD-induced single and double vector boson production plus two jets, and double and triple vector boson production (plus jet) in hadronic collisions at next-to-leading order (NLO) in the strong coupling constant, as well as Higgs boson plus two and three jet production via gluon fusion at the one-loop level. For the new version -- Version 3.0 -- several major enhancements have been included. An interface according to the Binoth Les Houches Accord (BLHA) has been added for all VBF and di/tri-boson processes including fully leptonic decays. For all dimension-8 operators affecting vector boson scattering (VBS) processes, a modified T-matrix unitarization procedure has been implemented. Several new production processes have been added, namely the VBS $Zγjj$ and $γγjj$ processes at NLO, $γγjj $, $WWj$ and $ZZj$ production at NLO including the loop-induced gluon-fusion contributions and the gluon-fusion one-loop induced $Φjjj$ ($Φ$ is a CP-even or CP-odd scalar boson) process at LO, retaining the full top-mass dependence. Finally, the code has been parallelized using OpenMPI.

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arXiv2023

Precise predictions for same-sign W-boson scattering at the LHC

Vector-boson scattering processes are of great importance for the current run-II and future runs of the Large Hadron Collider. The presence of triple and quartic gauge couplings in the process gives access to the gauge sector of the Standard Model (SM) and possible new-physics contributions there. To test any new-physics hypothesis, sound knowledge of the SM contributions is necessary, with a precision which at least matches the experimental uncertainties of existing and forthcoming measurements. In this article we present a detailed study of the vector-boson scattering process with two positively-charged leptons and missing transverse momentum in the final state. In particular, we first carry out a systematic comparison of the various approximations that are usually performed for this kind of process against the complete calculation, at LO and NLO QCD accuracy. Such a study is performed both in the usual fiducial region used by experimental collaborations and in a more inclusive phase space, where the differences among the various approximations lead to more sizeable effects. Afterwards, we turn to predictions matched to parton showers, at LO and NLO: we show that on the one hand, the inclusion of NLO QCD corrections leads to more stable predictions, but on the other hand the details of the matching and of the parton-shower programs cause differences which are considerably larger than those observed at fixed order, even in the experimental fiducial region. We conclude with recommendations for experimental studies of vector-boson scattering processes.

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arXiv2021

Effective field theory versus UV-complete model: vector boson scattering as a case study

Effective field theories (EFT) are commonly used to parameterize effects of BSM physics in vector boson scattering (VBS). For Wilson coefficients which are large enough to produce presently observable effects, the validity range of the EFT represents only a fraction of the energy range covered by the LHC, however. In order to shed light on possible extrapolations into the high energy region, a class of UV-complete toy models, with extra SU(2) multiplets of scalars or of fermions with vector-like weak couplings, is considered. By calculating the Wilson coefficients up to energy-dimension eight, and full one-loop contributions to VBS due to the heavy multiplets, the EFT approach, with and without unitarization at high energy, is compared to the perturbative prediction. For high multiplicities, e.g. nonets of fermions, the toy models predict sizable effects in transversely polarized VBS, but only outside the validity range of the EFT. At lower energies, dimension-eight operators are needed for an adequate description of the models, providing another example that dimension-eight can be more important than dimension-six operators. A simplified VBFNLO implementation is used to estimate sensitivity of VBS to such BSM effects at the LHC. Unitarization captures qualitative features of the toy models at high energy but significantly underestimates signal cross sections in the threshold region of the new particles.

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arXiv2018

Anomalous quartic gauge couplings and unitarization for the vector boson scattering process $pp\rightarrow W^+W^+jjX\rightarrow \ell^+ν_\ell\ell^+ν_\ell jjX$

Weak vector boson scattering (VBS) at the LHC provides an excellent source of information on the structure of quartic gauge couplings and possible effects of physics beyond the SM in electroweak symmetry breaking. Parameterizing deviations from the SM within an effective field theory at tree level, the dimension-8 operators, which are needed for sufficiently general modeling, lead to unphysical enhancements of cross sections within the accessible energy range of the LHC. Preservation of unitarity limits is needed for phenomenological studies of the $VVjj$ events which signify VBS. Here we develop a numerical unitarization scheme for the full off-shell VBS processes and apply it to same-sign $W$ scattering, i.e. processes like $qq\to qqW^+W^+$. The scheme is implemented within the Monte Carlo program VBFNLO, including leptonic decay of the weak bosons and NLO QCD corrections. Distributions differentiating between higher dimensional operators are discussed.

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arXiv2017

Jet clustering dependence of VBF Higgs production

Precise predictions for Higgs production via vector-boson fusion play an important role when testing the properties of the Higgs boson and probing new-physics effects. While the inclusive cross section changes little when including NNLO and N3LO QCD corrections, a differential NNLO calculation with typical VBF cuts shows large corrections of up to 10% in distributions. In this article, we investigate the dependence of the differential NNLO QCD calculation on the jet definition. Starting from the known results at a fixed jet clustering choice, we use the electroweak H+3 jets production cross section at NLO precision to derive NNLO results for H+2 jets production for other jet definitions. We find that larger clustering radii significantly reduce the impact of NNLO corrections. The sizable NNLO corrections for distributions are largely caused by the broader energy flow inside jets at NNLO and are to be expected generally for processes with jets at LO.

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arXiv2017

ZA production in vector-boson scattering at next-to-leading order QCD

Cross sections and differential distributions for ZA production in association with two jets via vector boson fusion are presented at next-to-leading order in QCD. The leptonic decays of the Z boson with full off-shell effects and spin correlations are taken into account. The uncertainties due to different scale choices and pdf sets are studied. Furthermore, we analyze the effect of including anomalous quartic gauge couplings at NLO QCD.

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arXiv2016

Anomalous couplings in WZ production beyond NLO QCD

We study WZ production with anomalous couplings at $\bar{n}$NLO QCD using the LoopSim method in combination with the Monte Carlo program VBFNLO. Higher order corrections to WZ production are dominated by additional hard jet radiation. Those contributions are insensitive to anomalous couplings and should thus be removed in analyses. We do this using a dynamical jet veto based on the transverse energy of the QCD and EW final state particles. This removes jet dominated events without introducing problematic logs like a fixed $p_{\text{T}}$ jet veto.

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arXiv2014

QCD radiation in WH and WZ production and anomalous coupling measurements

We study QCD radiation for the WH and WZ production processes at the LHC. We identify the regions sensitive to anomalous couplings, by considering jet observables, computed at NLO QCD with the use of the Monte Carlo program VBFNLO. Based on these observations, we propose the use of a dynamical jet veto. The dynamical jet veto avoids the problem of large logarithms depending on the veto scale, hence, providing more reliable predictions and simultaneously increasing the sensitivity to anomalous coupling searches, especially in the WZ production process.

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arXiv2014

QCD Induced Di-boson Production in Association with Two Jets at NLO QCD

We discuss results for di-boson plus two jets production processes at the LHC at NLO QCD. Issues related to the scale choice are reviewed. We focus on the distributions of the invariant mass and rapidity separation of the two hardest jets and show, for $W^\pm γjj$ and $Zγjj$ production, how the contribution from the radiative decays of the massive gauge bosons can be significantly reduced.

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arXiv2014

$Zγ$ production in association with two jets at next-to-leading order QCD

Next-to-leading order QCD corrections to the QCD-induced $pp \rightarrow l^+l^- γj j +X$ and $pp \rightarrow \barν_l ν_l γjj+X$ processes are presented. The latter is used to find an optimal cut to reduce the contribution of radiative photon emission off the charged leptons in the first channel. As expected, the scale uncertainties are significantly reduced at NLO and the QCD corrections are phase space dependent and important for precise measurements at the LHC.

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arXiv2014

Next-to-leading order QCD corrections to ZZ production in association with two jets

We present the first calculation of next-to-leading order QCD corrections to QCD-induced ZZ production in association with two jets at hadron colliders. Both Z bosons decay leptonically with all off-shell effects, virtual photon contributions and spin-correlation effects fully taken into account. This process is an important background to weak boson scattering, to the measurement of quartic gauge couplings and to searches for signals of new physics beyond the Standard Model. As expected, the next-to-leading order corrections reduce significantly the scale uncertainty and show a non-trivial phase space dependence in kinematic distributions. Our code will be publicly available as part of the parton level Monte Carlo program VBFNLO.

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arXiv2014

Next-to-leading order QCD corrections to $W^+W^+$ and $W^-W^-$ production in association with two jets

We present a study of $W^+W^+jj$ and $W^-W^-jj$ production including leptonic decays in hadron-hadron collisions. The full electroweak and QCD induced contributions and their interferences are calculated at leading order. We find that, for inclusive cuts, the interference effects can be large if the jets are produced with large transverse momentum where, however, the production rate is suppressed. We also discuss the vector-boson-fusion (VBF) cuts and show the validity of the VBF approximation. The NLO QCD corrections to the QCD-induced channels are also calculated. Compared to the previous calculation, we allow the intermediate $W$ bosons to be off-shell. For on-shell $W$ production, we obtain an excellent agreement with previous results. Our code will be publicly available as part of the parton level Monte Carlo program VBFNLO.

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arXiv2014

Next-to-leading order QCD corrections to $W γ$ production in association with two jets

The QCD-induced $W^\pm γ$ production channels in association with two jets are computed at next-to-leading order QCD accuracy. The W bosons decay leptonicly and full off-shell and finite width effects as well as spin correlations are taken into account. These processes are important backgrounds to beyond Standard Model physics searches and also relevant to test the nature of the quartic gauge couplings of the Standard Model. The next-to-leading order corrections reduce the scale uncertainty significantly and show a non-trivial phase space dependence. Our code will be publicly available as part of the parton level Monte Carlo program VBFNLO.

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arXiv2013

NLO QCD corrections to WZjj production at the LHC

We present a summary of the first calculation of NLO QCD corrections to WZjj production with leptonic decays at the LHC. Our results show that the next-to-leading order corrections reduce significantly the scale uncertainties.

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arXiv2013

W γ production in vector boson fusion at NLO in QCD

The next-to-leading order QCD corrections to W gamma production in association with two jets via vector boson fusion are calculated, including the leptonic decay of the W with full off-shell effects and spin correlations. The process lends itself to a test of quartic gauge couplings. The next-to-leading order corrections reduce the scale uncertainty significantly and show a non-trivial phase space dependence.

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arXiv2013

SUSY Background to Neutral MSSM Higgs Boson Searches

Within the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model (MSSM) the production and decay of superpartners can give rise to backgrounds for Higgs boson searches. Here MSSM background processes to the vector boson fusion channel with the Higgs boson decaying into two tau leptons or two W-bosons are investigated, giving rise to dilepton plus missing transverse momentum signals of the Higgs boson. Starting from a scenario with relatively small masses of the supersymmetric (SUSY) particles, with concomitant large cross section of the background processes, one obtains a first conservative estimate of the background. Light chargino pair production plus two jets, lightest and next-to-lightest neutralino production plus two jets as well as slepton pair production plus two jets are identified as important contributions to the irreducible SUSY background. Light chargino and next-to-lightest neutralino production plus two jets and next-to-lightest neutralino pair production plus two jets give rise to reducible backgrounds, which can be larger than the irreducible ones in some scenarios. The relevant distributions are shown and additional cuts for MSSM background reduction are discussed. Extrapolation to larger squark masses is performed and shows that MSSM backgrounds are quite small for squark masses at the current exclusion limits.

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arXiv2013

Di-boson and Tri-boson production at the LHC

The status of di-boson and tri-boson production is shortly review. Using the VBFNLO and the LOOPSIM package, approximated results at NNLO QCD are given for WZ production. Results for waa + jet at NLO QCD are also shown.

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arXiv2013

Higgs Spin Determination in the WW channel and beyond

After the discovery of the 126 GeV resonance at the LHC, the determination of its features, including its spin, is a very important ongoing task. In order to distinguish the two most likely spin hypotheses, spin-0 or spin-2, we study the phenomenology of a light Higgs-like spin-2 resonance produced in different gluon-fusion and vector-boson-fusion processes at the LHC. Starting from an effective model for the interaction of a spin-2 particle with the SM gauge bosons, we calculate cross sections and differential distributions within the Monte Carlo program Vbfnlo. We find that with specific model parameters such a spin-2 resonance can mimic SM Higgs rates and transverse-momentum distributions in $γγ$, $WW$ and $ZZ$ decays, whereas several distributions allow to separate spin-2 from spin-0, independently of the spin-2 model parameters.

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