arXiv subjects

Fabio Maltoni

Publications and source records attributed to Fabio Maltoni.

At least 127 records · Page 7Linked to original sources

arXiv2011

An effective approach to same sign top pair production at the LHC and the forward-backward asymmetry at the Tevatron

We study the phenomenology of same sign top pair production at the LHC in a model-independent way. The complete set of dimension six operators involving two top (or anti-top) quarks is introduced and the connection with all possible t- or s-channel particle exchanges is established. Only in the former case, same and opposite sign top pair production can be related. We find that while current Tevatron data disfavor t-channel models, other production mechanisms are viable and can be tested at the LHC.

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arXiv2011

W and Z/gamma* boson production in association with a bottom-antibottom pair

We present a study of lνb\bar{b} and l+ l- b\bar{b} production at hadron colliders. Our results, accurate to the next-to-leading order in QCD, are based on automatic matrix-element calculations performed by MadLoop and MadFKS, and are given at both the parton level, and after the matching with the Herwig event generator, achieved with aMC@NLO. We retain the complete dependence on the bottom-quark mass, and include exactly all spin correlations of final-state leptons. We discuss the cases of several observables at the LHC which highlight the importance of accurate simulations.

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arXiv2011

Simulating graviton production at hadron colliders

Spin-2 particles and in particular gravitons are predicted in many new physics scenarios at the TeV scale. Depending on the details of models such new states might show up as a continuum, massless particles, or TeV scale resonances. Correspondingly, very different discovery signatures should be exploited, from the search of excesses in events with multi jets and large missing transverse energy, to resonances in weak boson or jet pair productions. We present a very general and flexible implementation in MadGraph/MadEvent of spin-2 particles interacting with the standard model particles via the energy momentum tensor, which encompasses all of the most popular TeV scale models featuring gravitons. By merging matrix elements with parton shower, we can generate inclusive samples of graviton+jets at the hadron colliders in several scenarios (ADD, zero-mass graviton and RS). We compare and validate our results against the corresponding next-to-leading order QCD calculations.

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arXiv2011

Scalar and pseudoscalar Higgs production in association with a top-antitop pair

We present the calculation of scalar and pseudoscalar Higgs production in association with a top-antitop pair to the next-to-leading order (NLO) accuracy in QCD, interfaced with parton showers according to the MC@NLO formalism. We apply our results to the cases of light and very light Higgs boson production at the LHC, giving results for total rates as well as for sample differential distributions, relevant to the Higgs, to the top quarks, and to their decay products. This work constitutes the first phenomenological application of aMC@NLO, a fully automated approach to complete event generation at NLO in QCD.

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arXiv2011

MadGraph 5 : Going Beyond

MadGraph 5 is the new version of the MadGraph matrix element generator, written in the Python programming language. It implements a number of new, efficient algorithms that provide improved performance and functionality in all aspects of the program. It features a new user interface, several new output formats including C++ process libraries for Pythia 8, and full compatibility with FeynRules for new physics models implementation, allowing for event generation for any model that can be written in the form of a Lagrangian. MadGraph 5 builds on the same philosophy as the previous versions, and its design allows it to be used as a collaborative platform where theoretical, phenomenological and simulation projects can be developed and then distributed to the high-energy community. We describe the ideas and the most important developments of the code and illustrate its capabilities through a few simple phenomenological examples.

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arXiv2011

Non-resonant New Physics in Top Pair Production at Hadron Colliders

We use top quark pair production as a probe of top-philic non-resonant new physics. Following a low energy effective field theory approach, we calculate several key observables in top quark pair production at hadron colliders (e.g., total cross section, ttbar invariant mass distribution, forward-backward asymmetry, spin correlations) including the interference of the Standard Model with dimension-six operators. We determine the LHC reach in probing new physics after having taken into account the Tevatron constraints. In particular, we show that the gluon fusion process gg -> ttbar which remains largely unconstrained at the Tevatron is affected by only one top-philic dimension-six operator, the chromo-magnetic moment of the top quark. This operator can be further constrained by the LHC data as soon as a precision of about 20% is reached for the total ttbar cross-section. While our approach is general and model-independent, it is particularly relevant to models of Higgs and top compositeness, which we consider in detail, also in connection with ttbar ttbar and ttbar bbbar production.

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arXiv2010

Charged Higgs production via vector-boson fusion at NNLO in QCD

We present the total cross sections at next-to-next-to-leading order (NNLO) in the strong coupling for single and double charged Higgs production via weak boson fusion. Results are obtained via the structure function approach, which builds upon the approximate, though very accurate, factorization of the QCD corrections between the two quark lines. The theoretical uncertainty on the total cross sections at the LHC from higher order corrections and the parton distribution uncertainties are estimated at the 2% level each for a wide range of Higgs boson masses.

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arXiv2010

Higgs production via vector-boson fusion at NNLO in QCD

We present the total cross sections at next-to-next-to-leading order (NNLO) in the strong coupling for Higgs production via weak boson fusion. Our results are obtained via the structure function approach, which builds upon the approximate, though very accurate, factorization of the QCD corrections between the two quark lines. The theoretical uncertainty on the total cross sections at the LHC from higher order corrections and the parton distribution uncertainties are estimated at the 2% level each for a wide range of Higgs boson masses.

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arXiv2010

Higgs production at NNLO in QCD: the VBF channel

We present a phenomenological study for the production of the Higgs boson at next-to-next-to-leading order (NNLO) in QCD via the vector boson fusion (VBF) process. After a general discussion about the different production channels of the Higgs, we show results for hadron colliders like LHC and Tevatron in VBF. The theoretical predictions are obtained using the structure function approach. This approximation turns out to be more accurate than the precision to which the VBF Higgs production channel can be considered a well defined process by itself and the theoretical uncertainty are of the order of 1-2%. The uncertainties due to parton distributions are also discussed and are estimated to be at the same level.

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arXiv2009

Isolating Wt production at the LHC

We address the issue of single top production in association with a W boson at the Large Hadron Collider, in particular how to obtain an accurate description in the face of the top pair production background given that the two processes interfere with each other. We stress the advantages of an MC@NLO description, and find that for cuts used to isolate the signal, it makes sense to consider Wt as a well-defined production process in that the interference with top pair production is small, and the cross-section of the former is above the scale variation uncertainty associated with the latter. We also consider the case where both Wt and top pair production are backgrounds to a third process (Higgs boson production followed by decay to a W boson pair), and find in this context that interference issues can also be neglected. We discuss the generalization of our results to other situations, aided by a comparison between the MC@NLO approach and a calculation of the WWbb final state matched to a parton shower.

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arXiv2009

Unconventional phenomenology of a minimal two-Higgs-doublet model

Two-Higgs-doublet models (2HDM) are simple extensions of the Standard Model (SM) where the scalar sector is enlarged by adding a weak doublet. As a result, the Higgs potential depends in general on several free parameters which have to be carefully chosen to give predictions consistent with the current precision data. We consider a 2HDM invariant under a twisted custodial symmetry and depending only on three extra parameters beyond the SM ones. This model naturally features an inverted mass spectrum with a light pseudoscalar state and a heavy SM-like Higgs boson. We thoroughly analyze direct and indirect constraints and present a few unconventional though promising signatures at the LHC.

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arXiv2009

NLO predictions for t-channel production of single top and fourth generation quarks at hadron colliders

We present updated NLO predictions for the electroweak t-channel production of heavy quarks at the Tevatron and at the LHC. We consider production of single top and fourth generation t' starting from both 2 to 2 and 2 to 3 Born processes. Predictions for tb' and t'b' cross sections at NLO are also given for the first time. A thorough study of the theoretical uncertainties coming from parton distribution functions, renormalisation and factorisation scale dependence and heavy quark masses is performed.

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arXiv2009

Automation of next-to-leading order computations in QCD: the FKS subtraction

We present the complete automation of the universal subtraction formalism proposed by Frixione, Kunszt, and Signer for the computation of any cross section at the next-to-leading order in QCD. Given a process, the only ingredient to be provided externally is the infrared- and ultraviolet-finite contribution of virtual origin. Our implementation, currently restricted to the case of e+e- collisions, is built upon and works in the same way as MadGraph. It is particularly suited to parallel computation, and it can deal with any physical process resulting from a theory implemented in MadGraph, thus including the Standard Model as well as Beyond the Standard Model theories. We give results for some sample processes that document the performances of the implementation, and show in particular how the number of subtraction terms has an extremely mild growth with final-state multiplicity.

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arXiv2009

A comprehensive approach to new physics simulations

We describe a framework to develop, implement and validate any perturbative Lagrangian-based particle physics model for further theoretical, phenomenological and experimental studies. The starting point is FeynRules, a Mathematica package that allows to generate Feynman rules for any Lagrangian and then, through dedicated interfaces, automatically pass the corresponding relevant information to any supported Monte Carlo event generator. We prove the power, robustness and flexibility of this approach by presenting a few examples of new physics models (the Hidden Abelian Higgs Model, the general Two-Higgs-Doublet Model, the most general Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model, the Minimal Higgsless Model, Universal and Large Extra Dimensions, and QCD-inspired effective Lagrangians) and their implementation/validation in FeynArts/FormCalc, CalcHep, MadGraph/MadEvent, and Sherpa.

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arXiv2009

Next-to-leading-order predictions for t-channel single-top production at hadron colliders

We present the predictions at next-to-leading order (NLO) in the strong coupling for the single-top cross section in the t channel at the Tevatron and the LHC. Our calculation starts from the 2 -> 3 Born amplitude g q -> t bbar q', keeping the b-quark mass non-zero. A comparison is performed with a traditional NLO calculation of this channel based on the 2 -> 2 Born process with a bottom quark in the initial state. In particular, the effect of using kinematic approximations and resumming logarithms of the form log(Q^2/m_b^2) in the 2 -> 2 process is assessed. Our results show that the 2 -> 3 calculation is very well behaved and in substantial agreement with the predictions based on the 2 -> 2 process.

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arXiv2008

QCD radiation in the production of heavy colored particles at the LHC

We present a study of effects of QCD radiation in the production of heavy colored states, employing inclusive multi-jet samples obtained by matching matrix elements and parton showers. We discuss several examples showing that matched samples are in general not only more accurate than a parton shower alone, but also often indispensable to make reliable predictions of beyond the Standard Model signals.

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arXiv2008

Antenna functions from MHV rules

QCD amplitudes display a universal behaviour when one or more partons are soft and/or collinear. This can expressed in terms of antenna functions which are much simpler than the full amplitudes and yet correctly embody their infrared behaviour. We show how antenna functions can be naturally obtained via a twistor-inspired MHV approach. As an application, we present compact results for MHV and NMHV antennas functions valid for any number of gluons. These are sufficient to calculate the complete set of tree-level gluon antenna functions up to NNNLO. As an interesting corollary, we prove that splitting amplitudes too can be written directly through a MHV diagrammatic approach. Finally we find that antenna functions, collinear splitting amplitudes and eikonal factors satisfy the same kind of recursive relation as the full amplitudes.

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arXiv2007

Higgs Boson Production in Association with a Photon in Vector Boson Fusion at the LHC

Higgs boson production in association with two forward jets and a central photon at the CERN Large Hadron Collider is analyzed, for the Higgs boson decaying into a b bbar pair in the m_H <= 140 GeV mass region. We study both irreducible and main reducible backgrounds at parton level. Compared to the Higgs production via vector-boson fusion, the request of a further photon at moderate rapidities dramatically enhances the signal/background ratio. Inclusive cross sections for p_T^γ>= 20 GeV can reach a few tens of fb's. After a suitable choice of kinematical cuts, the cross-section ratio for signal and irreducible-background can be enhanced up to >= ~1/10, with a signal cross section of the order of a few fb's, for m_H ~ 120 GeV. The request of a central photon radiation also enhances the relative signal sensitivity to the WWH coupling with respect to the ZZH coupling. Hence, a determination of the cross section for the associated production of a Higgs boson decaying into a b bbar pair plus a central photon in vector-boson fusion could help in constraining the b bbar H coupling, and the WWH coupling as well. A preliminary study of QCD showering effects points to a further significant improvement of the signal detectability over the background.

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