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Doreen Wackeroth

Publications and source records attributed to Doreen Wackeroth.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
arXiv2026

Radiative Corrections to Elastic Lepton-Proton Scattering with Focus on Two-Photon-Exchange Diagrams

Lepton (electron and muon) scattering experiments are excellent tools to gain insight into the nucleon structure. Elastic electron-proton scattering probes the spatial distribution of charge and magnetization inside the proton, and comparing electron-proton and muon-proton scattering data tests lepton universality. The availability of a plethora of scattering data with increased precision and observed discrepancies such as the proton form factor puzzle and the proton radius puzzle motivated a renewed effort to improve the theoretical framework. Realizing that the one-photon-exchange approximation (OPE), i.e. the Born approximation, is not sufficient, radiative corrections in QED, especially the two-photon-exchange (TPE) diagrams, are under investigation. The TPE diagrams are of special interest among the radiative corrections, since they depend on the proton structure. In this work, we present a complete calculation of QED radiative corrections to elastic electron-proton and muon-proton scattering at next-to-leading order, taking into account loop-momentum-dependent form factors. In the discussion of their numerical impact on lepton-proton scattering cross sections, we pay special attention to the TPE diagrams and compare them with existing theoretical predictions and lepton-proton scattering data.

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arXiv2024

General Mass treatment for Z boson production in association with a heavy quark at hadron colliders

We present the application of the ACOT and S-ACOT general mass variable flavor number schemes to proton-proton collisions with particular attention to the production of final states with at least one heavy quark. Subtraction and residual heavy-quark parton distribution functions are introduced to facilitate the implementation of this scheme at higher orders in perturbative QCD. The calculation of Z-boson hadronic production with at least one $b$ jet beyond the lowest order in QCD is considered for illustration purposes.

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arXiv2024

General mass variable flavor number scheme for $Z$ boson production in association with a heavy quark at hadron colliders

We present a methodology to streamline implementation of massive-quark radiative contributions in calculations with a variable number of active partons in proton-proton collisions. The methodology introduces \textit{subtraction} and \textit{residual} heavy-quark parton distribution functions (PDFs) to implement calculations in the Aivazis-Collins-Olness-Tung (ACOT) factorization scheme and its simplified realization in various processes up to the next-to-the-next-to-leading order in the QCD coupling strength. Interpolation tables for bottom-quark subtraction and residual distributions for CT18 NLO and NNLO PDF ensembles are provided in the common LHAPDF6 format. A numerical calculation of $Z$-boson production with at least one $b$ jet at the Large Hadron Collider beyond the lowest order in QCD is considered for illustration purposes.

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arXiv2022

Report of the Topical Group on Top quark physics and heavy flavor production for Snowmass 2021

This report summarizes the work of the Energy Frontier Topical Group on EW Physics: Heavy flavor and top quark physics (EF03) of the 2021 Community Summer Study (Snowmass). It aims to highlight the physics potential of top-quark studies and heavy-flavor production processes (bottom and charm) at the HL-LHC and possible future hadron and lepton colliders and running scenarios.

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arXiv2021

NLO electroweak and QCD corrections to the production of a photon with three charged lepton plus missing energy at the LHC

Electroweak (EW) triboson production processes with at least one heavy gauge boson are of increasing interest at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) as direct precision probes of one of the least-tested sectors of the Standard Model (SM), the quartic couplings of the EW gauge bosons. These processes therefore offer promising opportunities for searches for indirect signals of Beyond-the-SM (BSM) physics. In this paper, we present results for fiducial cross sections at next-to-leading-order (NLO) EW and NLO QCD to $p\;p\to e^{+}\;\nu_{e}\;\mu^{+}\;\mu^{-}\;\gamma$ at the 13 TeV LHC. This signature includes the triboson production process $p\;p \to W^{+}\;Z\;\gamma$ with leptonic decays, $W^{+} \to e^{+}\;\nu_{e}$ and $Z \to \mu^{+}\;\mu^{-}$. The computation is based on the complete set of leading-order (LO) contributions of $\mathcal{O}(\alpha^5)$ and on NLO EW and NLO QCD cross sections of $\mathcal{O}(\alpha^6)$ and $\mathcal{O}(\alpha^5 \alpha_\text{s})$, respectively, and thus off-shell effects, spin correlations and non-resonance contributions are fully taken into account. We construct a Monte Carlo framework which provides total and differential cross sections for a chosen set of basic analysis cuts. We find that while NLO EW corrections enhance the fiducial LO total cross section by only $1\%$, they can significantly change some distributions in certain kinematic regions. For example, the relative NLO EW corrections to the muon transverse momentum distribution at 500 GeV amounts to $-20\%$. To illustrate how missing NLO EW corrections could masquerade as BSM physics, we show examples for the impact of dimension-8 operators in the SM Effective Field Theory framework on selected kinematic distributions.

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arXiv2021

Hadronic production of top-quark pairs in association with a pair of leptons in the POWHEG BOX framework

We present an implementation of $t\bar t \ell^+\ell^-$ ($\ell=e,\mu$) hadronic production at next-to-leading order in QCD matched to parton-shower event generators in the POWHEG BOX framework. The program we developed includes all leading-order contributions of order $\alpha_s^2\alpha^2$ for the specified final state, as well as the corresponding first-order QCD corrections. Decays of the top quarks have been simulated retaining spin-correlations in all tree-level matrix elements. We consider the case of the Large Hadron Collider at $\sqrt{s}=13$ TeV and compare results for $t\bar t \ell^+\ell^-$ production in the fiducial volume where the invariant mass of the lepton pairs is centered around the $Z$-boson mass to corresponding predictions for $t\bar{t}Z$ on-shell production with $Z\rightarrow \ell^+\ell^-$. We find that off-shell effects in $t\bar t \ell^+\ell^-$ are in general small at the level of the total cross section, but can decrease the tail of the leptons' transverse momentum distributions by 10-20% and, in these regions, they are visible beyond the scale uncertainty due to renormalization and factorization scale variation. Moreover, we find that accounting for top-quark decays in the narrow-width approximation with tree-level spin correlations also gives origin to 10-20% effects in specific regions of the kinematic distributions of the $t\bar t \ell^+\ell^-$ decayed final state.

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arXiv2018

Electroweak and QCD corrections to $Z$-boson production with one $b$ jet in a massive 5 Flavor Scheme

We compute the $O(\alpha_s \alpha^2)$ and $O(\alpha_s^2 \alpha)$ contributions to the production cross section of a $Z$ boson with one $b$ jet at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), and study their phenomenological relevance for LHC physics. The accurate prediction of hadronic $Z+b$-jet production is needed to control a background that greatly affects both the measurement of Higgs-boson properties and searches of new physics at the LHC. At the same time it could enable the first precise measurement of the $b$-quark parton distribution function. In this context $b$-quark mass effects become relevant and need to be studied with care, both at the level of the hard process and at the level of the initial- and final-state parton evolution. It is the aim of this paper to explore some of these issues in the framework of a massive 5 Flavor Scheme and to assess the need for both the inclusion of electroweak corrections, in addition to QCD corrections, and $b$-quark mass effects in the prediction of total and differential cross sections for hadronic $Z+b$-jet production.

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arXiv2016

Study of weak corrections to Drell-Yan, top-quark pair and dijet Production at high energies with MCFM

Electroweak (EW) corrections can be enhanced at high energies due to the soft or collinear radiation of virtual and real $W$ and $Z$ bosons that result in Sudakov-like corrections of the form $\alpha_W^l\log^n(Q^2/M_{W,Z}^2)$, where $\alpha_W =\alpha/(4\pi\sin^2\theta_W)$ and $n\le 2l-1$. The inclusion of EW corrections in predictions for hadron colliders is therefore especially important when searching for signals of possible new physics in distributions probing the kinematic regime $Q^2 \gg M_V^2$. Next-to-leading order (NLO) EW corrections should also be taken into account when their size ($\mathcal{O}(\alpha)$) is comparable to that of QCD corrections at next-to-next-to-leading order (NNLO) ($\mathcal{O}(\alpha_s^2)$). To this end we have implemented the NLO weak corrections to the Neutral-Current Drell-Yan process, top-quark pair production and di-jet production in the parton-level Monte-Carlo program MCFM. This enables a combined study with the corresponding QCD corrections at NLO and NNLO. We provide both the full NLO weak corrections and their Sudakov approximation since the latter is often used for a fast evaluation of weak effects at high energies and can be extended to higher orders. With both the exact and approximate results at hand, the validity of the Sudakov approximation can be readily quantified

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arXiv2015

Higgs boson production in association with b jets in the POWHEG BOX

The hadronic production of a Higgs boson (H) in association with b jets will play an important role in investigating the Higgs-boson couplings to Standard Model particles during Run II of the CERN Large Hadron Collider, and could in particular reveal the presence of anomalies in the assumed hierarchy of Yukawa couplings to the third-generation quarks. A very high degree of accuracy in the theoretical description of this process is crucial to implement the rich physics program that could lead to either direct or indirect evidence of new physics from Higgs-boson measurements. Aiming for accuracy in the theoretical modeling of H+b-jet production, we have interfaced the analytic Next-to-Leading-Order QCD calculation of H-bottom-antibottom production with parton-shower Monte Carlo event generators in the POWHEG BOX framework. In this paper we describe the most relevant aspects of the implementation and present results for the production of H+1 b jet, H+2 b jets, and $H$ with no tagged b jets, in the form of kinematic distributions of the Higgs boson, of the b jets, and of the non-b jets, at the 13 TeV Large Hadron Collider. The corresponding code is part of the public release of the POWHEG BOX.

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arXiv2015

Electroweak Corrections at the LHC with MCFM

Electroweak (EW) corrections at the LHC can be enhanced at high energies due to soft/collinear radiation of W and Z bosons, being dominated by Sudakov-like corrections in the form of $\alpha_W^l\log^n(Q^2/M_W^2)$ $(n \le 2l, \alpha_W = \alpha/(4\pi\sin\theta_W^2))$ when the energy scale $Q$ enters the TeV regime. Thus, the inclusion of EW corrections in LHC predictions is important for the search of possible signals of new physics in tails of kinematic distributions. EW corrections should also be taken into account in virtue of their comparable size ($\mathcal{O}(\alpha)$) to that of higher order QCD corrections ($\mathcal{O}(\alpha_s^2)$). We calculated the next-to-leading-order (NLO) weak corrections to the neutral-current (NC) Drell-Yan process, top-quark pair production and di-jet producion, and implemented them in the Monte-Carlo program MCFM. This enables a combined study with the corresponding NLO QCD corrections. We provide both the full NLO weak corrections and their weak Sudakov approximation valid at high energies. The latter is often used for a fast evaluation of weak effects, and having the exact result available as well allows to quantify the validity of the Sudakov approximation.

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arXiv2015

Higgs boson production in association with top quarks in the POWHEG BOX

We present results from the analytic calculation of top+antitop+Higgs hadronic production at Next-to-Leading Order in QCD interfaced with parton-shower Monte Carlo event generators in the POWHEG BOX framework. We consider kinematic distributions of the top quark and Higgs boson at the 8 TeV Large Hadron Collider and study the theoretical uncertainties due to specific choices of renormalization/factorization scales and parton-showering algorithms, namely PYTHIA and HERWIG. The importance of spin-correlations in the production and decay stages of a top/antitop quark is discussed on the example of kinematic distributions of leptons originating from the top/antitop decays. The corresponding code is now part of the public release of the POWHEG BOX.

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arXiv2013

Monte Carlo tools for studies of non-standard electroweak gauge boson interactions in multi-boson processes: A Snowmass White Paper

In this Snowmass 2013 white paper, we review the effective field theory approach for studies of non-standard electroweak interactions in electroweak vector boson pair and triple production and vector boson scattering. We present an overview of the implementation of dimension six and eight operators in MadGraph5, VBFNLO, and WHIZARD, and provide relations between the coefficients of these higher dimensions operators used in these programs and in the anomalous couplings approach. We perform a tuned comparison of predictions for multi-boson processes including non-standard electroweak interactions with MadGraph5, VBFNLO, and WHIZARD. We discuss the role of higher-order corrections in these predictions using VBFNLO and a POWHEG BOX implementation of higher-order QCD corrections to WWjj production. The purpose of this white paper is to collect useful tools for the study of non-standard EW physics at the LHC, compare them, and study the main physics issues in the relevant processes.

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arXiv2012

MSSM corrections to the top-antitop quark forward-backward asymmetry at the Tevatron

We study the effects of the complete supersymmetric QCD and electroweak one-loop corrections to the ttbar forward-backward asymmetry at the Fermilab Tevatron collider. We work in the complex Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model (MSSM), only restricted by the condition of minimal flavor violation (MFV). We perform a comprehensive scan over the relevant parameter space of the complex MFV-MSSM and determine the maximal possible contributions of these MSSM loop corrections to the forward-backward asymmetry in the ttbar center-of-mass frame.

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arXiv2010

Associated production of a W or Z boson with bottom quarks at the Tevatron and the LHC

We present total and differential cross sections for W b anti-b and Z b anti-b production at the CERN Large Hadron Collider including Next-to-Leading Order (NLO) QCD corrections and full bottom-quark mass effects. We discuss the scale uncertainty of the total cross sections due to the residual renormalization- and factorization-scale dependence of the truncated perturbative series. We also discuss b-quark mass effects in kinematic distributions by comparing with a calculation that considers massless bottom quarks, as implemented in the Monte Carlo program MCFM. The effects of a non-zero bottom-quark mass (m_b) cannot be neglected in phase-space regions where the relevant kinematic observable, such as the transverse momentum of the bottom quarks or the invariant mass of the bottom-quark pair, are of the order of m_b. Finally, we present the result of a detailed comparison of NLO QCD predictions for W+b-jet production with one or two jets with Tevatron data.

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arXiv2010

Radiative corrections to W gamma gamma production at the LHC

Radiative W production at hadron colliders is an important testing ground for the Standard Model. We consider W gamma gamma production which is sensitive to the quartic WW gamma gamma coupling. Furthermore the Standard Model amplitude for this process contains a radiation zero. We present a calculation of the NLO QCD corrections for W gamma gamma production at the LHC.

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arXiv2009

Electroweak radiative corrections to neutrino--nucleon scattering at NuTeV

A dedicated effort by both the experimental and theoretical communities is crucial for achieving a precise determination of Standard Model parameters such as the $W$ mass ($M_W$). $M_W$ is measured directly at the CERN LEP2 $e^+ e^-$ and the Fermilab Tevatron $p \bar p$ colliders, resulting in a precision of $δM_W/M_W=0.03%$. A complementary $M_W$ measurement is provided by the NuTeV collaboration, who extract $\sin^2 θ_W$, and thus $M_W$, from the ratio of deep-inelastic neutral and charged-current neutrino(anti-neutrino)-Nucleon ($νN(\bar νN)$) scattering cross sections. However, their result differs from direct measurements performed at LEP2 and the Tevatron by about three standard deviations. Possible sources for the origin of this discrepancy have been extensively studied in the literature, among them the impact of electroweak radiative corrections. Here we provide first (preliminary) results of a new calculation of electroweak ${\cal O}(α)$ corrections with emphasis on the effects of non-zero muon and charm quark masses. We find non-negligible shifts in $\sin^2θ_W$ due to these mass effects but more detailed studies including detector resolution effects are needed to determine their impact on $M_W$ as extracted by the NuTeV collaboration.

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