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G. Ferrera

Publications and source records attributed to G. Ferrera.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
arXiv2022

Improved Factorization for Threshold Resummation in Heavy Quark to Heavy Quark Decays

We consider the resummation of soft-gluon effects in heavy quark to heavy quark decays, namely the processes Q1 -> Q2 + (non QCD partons), where Q1 and Q2 are two different heavy quarks. We construct a new factorization scheme for threshold resummed spectra, which allows us to consistently evaluate the distribution of the final hadron invariant mass mX in all the kinematic regions, i.e. when mX is smaller, of the same order, or larger than the mass of the final quark Q2. A dependence of the Improved Coefficient Function on the threshold variable is introduced, which can however be relegated to a small interval of this variable by means of the so-called Partition of Unity. We explicitly apply our improved scheme to the b -> X_s + gamma decay at next-to-leading logarithmic accuracy.

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arXiv2020

May the four be with you: Novel IR-subtraction methods to tackle NNLO calculations

In this report, we present a discussion about different frameworks to perform precise higher-order computations for high-energy physics. These approaches implement novel strategies to deal with infrared and ultraviolet singularities in quantum field theories. A special emphasis is devoted to the local cancellation of these singularities, which can enhance the efficiency of computations and lead to discover novel mathematical properties in quantum field theories.

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arXiv2019

Standard Model Physics at the HL-LHC and HE-LHC

The successful operation of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) and the excellent performance of the ATLAS, CMS, LHCb and ALICE detectors in Run-1 and Run-2 with $pp$ collisions at center-of-mass energies of 7, 8 and 13 TeV as well as the giant leap in precision calculations and modeling of fundamental interactions at hadron colliders have allowed an extraordinary breadth of physics studies including precision measurements of a variety physics processes. The LHC results have so far confirmed the validity of the Standard Model of particle physics up to unprecedented energy scales and with great precision in the sectors of strong and electroweak interactions as well as flavour physics, for instance in top quark physics. The upgrade of the LHC to a High Luminosity phase (HL-LHC) at 14 TeV center-of-mass energy with 3 ab$^{-1}$ of integrated luminosity will probe the Standard Model with even greater precision and will extend the sensitivity to possible anomalies in the Standard Model, thanks to a ten-fold larger data set, upgraded detectors and expected improvements in the theoretical understanding. This document summarises the physics reach of the HL-LHC in the realm of strong and electroweak interactions and top quark physics, and provides a glimpse of the potential of a possible further upgrade of the LHC to a 27 TeV $pp$ collider, the High-Energy LHC (HE-LHC), assumed to accumulate an integrated luminosity of 15 ab$^{-1}$.

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arXiv2016

Handbook of LHC Higgs Cross Sections: 4. Deciphering the Nature of the Higgs Sector

This Report summarizes the results of the activities of the LHC Higgs Cross Section Working Group in the period 2014-2016. The main goal of the working group was to present the state-of-the-art of Higgs physics at the LHC, integrating all new results that have appeared in the last few years. The first part compiles the most up-to-date predictions of Higgs boson production cross sections and decay branching ratios, parton distribution functions, and off-shell Higgs boson production and interference effects. The second part discusses the recent progress in Higgs effective field theory predictions, followed by the third part on pseudo-observables, simplified template cross section and fiducial cross section measurements, which give the baseline framework for Higgs boson property measurements. The fourth part deals with the beyond the Standard Model predictions of various benchmark scenarios of Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model, extended scalar sector, Next-to-Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model and exotic Higgs boson decays. This report follows three previous working-group reports: Handbook of LHC Higgs Cross Sections: 1. Inclusive Observables (CERN-2011-002), Handbook of LHC Higgs Cross Sections: 2. Differential Distributions (CERN-2012-002), and Handbook of LHC Higgs Cross Sections: 3. Higgs properties (CERN-2013-004). The current report serves as the baseline reference for Higgs physics in LHC Run 2 and beyond.

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arXiv2016

Physics at a 100 TeV pp collider: Standard Model processes

This report summarises the properties of Standard Model processes at the 100 TeV pp collider. We document the production rates and typical distributions for a number of benchmark Standard Model processes, and discuss new dynamical phenomena arising at the highest energies available at this collider. We discuss the intrinsic physics interest in the measurement of these Standard Model processes, as well as their role as backgrounds for New Physics searches.

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arXiv2016

Precision Studies of Observables in pp->W->l nu and pp->gamma,Z->l+l- processes at the LHC

This report was prepared in the context of the LPCC "Electroweak Precision Measurements at the LHC WG" and summarizes the activity of a subgroup dedicated to the systematic comparison of public Monte Carlo codes, which describe the Drell-Yan processes at hadron colliders, in particular at the CERN Large Hadron Collider (LHC). This work represents an important step towards the definition of an accurate simulation framework necessary for very high-precision measurements of electroweak (EW) observables such as the $W$ boson mass and the weak mixing angle. All the codes considered in this report share at least next-to-leading-order (NLO) accuracy in the prediction of the total cross sections in an expansion either in the strong or in the EW coupling constant. The NLO fixed-order predictions have been scrutinized at the technical level, using exactly the same inputs, setup and perturbative accuracy, in order to quantify the level of agreement of different implementations of the same calculation. A dedicated comparison, again at the technical level, of three codes that reach next-to-next-to-leading-order (NNLO) accuracy in quantum chromodynamics (QCD) for the total cross section has also been performed. These fixed-order results are a well-defined reference that allows a classification of the impact of higher-order sets of radiative corrections. Several examples of higher-order effects due to the strong or the EW interaction are discussed in this common framework. Also the combination of QCD and EW corrections is discussed, together with the ambiguities that affect the final result, due to the choice of a specific combination recipe.

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arXiv2015

Transverse momentum dependent (TMD) parton distribution functions: status and prospects

We provide a concise overview on transverse momentum dependent (TMD) parton distribution functions, their application to topical issues in high-energy physics phenomenology, and their theoretical connections with QCD resummation, evolution and factorization theorems. We illustrate the use of TMDs via examples of multi-scale problems in hadronic collisions. These include transverse momentum q_T spectra of Higgs and vector bosons for low q_T, and azimuthal correlations in the production of multiple jets associated with heavy bosons at large jet masses. We discuss computational tools for TMDs, and present an application of a new tool, TMDlib, to parton density fits and parameterizations.

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arXiv2014

Threshold resummation at N$^3$LL accuracy and soft-virtual cross sections at N$^3$LO

We consider QCD radiative corrections to the production of colourless high-mass systems in hadron collisions. We show that the recent computation of the soft-virtual corrections to Higgs boson production at N$^3$LO [1] together with the universality structure of soft-gluon emission can be exploited to extract the general expression of the hard-virtual coefficient that contributes to threshold resummation at N$^3$LL accuracy. The hard-virtual coefficient is directly related to the process-dependent virtual amplitude through a universal (process-independent) factorization formula that we explicitly evaluate up to three-loop order. As an application, we present the explicit expression of the soft-virtual N$^3$LO corrections for the production of an arbitrary colourless system. In the case of the Drell-Yan process, we confirm the recent result of Ref.[2].

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arXiv2013

Handbook of LHC Higgs Cross Sections: 3. Higgs Properties

This Report summarizes the results of the activities in 2012 and the first half of 2013 of the LHC Higgs Cross Section Working Group. The main goal of the working group was to present the state of the art of Higgs Physics at the LHC, integrating all new results that have appeared in the last few years. This report follows the first working group report Handbook of LHC Higgs Cross Sections: 1. Inclusive Observables (CERN-2011-002) and the second working group report Handbook of LHC Higgs Cross Sections: 2. Differential Distributions (CERN-2012-002). After the discovery of a Higgs boson at the LHC in mid-2012 this report focuses on refined prediction of Standard Model (SM) Higgs phenomenology around the experimentally observed value of 125-126 GeV, refined predictions for heavy SM-like Higgs bosons as well as predictions in the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model and first steps to go beyond these models. The other main focus is on the extraction of the characteristics and properties of the newly discovered particle such as couplings to SM particles, spin and CP-quantum numbers etc.

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arXiv2013

Universality of transverse-momentum resummation and hard factors at the NNLO

We consider QCD radiative corrections to the production of colourless high-mass systems in hadron collisions. The logarithmically-enhanced contributions at small transverse momentum are treated to all perturbative orders by a universal resummation formula that depends on a single process-dependent hard factor. We show that the hard factor is directly related to the all-order virtual amplitude of the corresponding partonic process. The direct relation is universal (process independent), and it is expressed by an all-order factorization formula that we explicitly evaluate up to the next-to-next-to-leading order (NNLO) in QCD perturbation theory. Once the NNLO scattering amplitude is available, the corresponding hard factor is directly determined: it controls NNLO contributions in resummed calculations at full next-to-next-to-leading logarithmic accuracy, and it can be used in applications of the q_T subtraction formalism to perform fully-exclusive perturbative calculations up to NNLO. The universality structure of the hard factor and its explicit NNLO form are also extended to the related formalism of threshold resummation.

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arXiv2013

Report of the Snowmass 2013 energy frontier QCD working group

This is the summary report of the energy frontier QCD working group prepared for Snowmass 2013. We review the status of tools, both theoretical and experimental, for understanding the strong interactions at colliders. We attempt to prioritize important directions that future developments should take. Most of the efforts of the QCD working group concentrate on proton-proton colliders, at 14 TeV as planned for the next run of the LHC, and for 33 and 100 TeV, possible energies of the colliders that will be necessary to carry on the physics program started at 14 TeV. We also examine QCD predictions and measurements at lepton-lepton and lepton-hadron colliders, and in particular their ability to improve our knowledge of strong coupling constant and parton distribution functions.

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arXiv2012

Vector boson production at hadron colliders: hard-collinear coefficients at the NNLO

We consider QCD radiative corrections to vector-boson production in hadron collisions. We present the next-to-next-to-leading order (NNLO) result of the hard-collinear coefficient function for the all-order resummation of logarithmically-enhanced contributions at small transverse momenta. The coefficient function controls NNLO contributions in resummed calculations at full next-to-next-to-leading logarithmic accuracy. The same coefficient function is used in applications of the subtraction method to perform fully-exclusive perturbative calculations up to NNLO.

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arXiv2012

Higgs boson production at the LHC: transverse momentum resummation effects in the H->2gamma, H->WW->lnu lnu and H->ZZ->4l decay modes

We consider Standard Model Higgs boson production through gluon--gluon fusion in hadron collisions. We combine the calculation of the next-to-next-to-leading order QCD corrections to the inclusive cross section with the resummation of multiple soft-gluon emissions at small transverse momenta up to next-to-next-to-leading logarithmic accuracy. The calculation is implemented in the numerical program HRes and allows us to retain the full kinematics of the Higgs boson and of its decay products. We present selected numerical results for the signal cross section at the LHC (\sqrt{s}=8 TeV), in the H->2gamma, H->WW->lnu lnu and H->ZZ->4l decay channels by using the nominal cuts applied in current Higgs boson searches by the ATLAS and CMS collaborations.

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arXiv2012

Handbook of LHC Higgs Cross Sections: 2. Differential Distributions

This Report summarises the results of the second year's activities of the LHC Higgs Cross Section Working Group. The main goal of the working group was to present the state of the art of Higgs Physics at the LHC, integrating all new results that have appeared in the last few years. The first working group report Handbook of LHC Higgs Cross Sections: 1. Inclusive Observables (CERN-2011-002) focuses on predictions (central values and errors) for total Higgs production cross sections and Higgs branching ratios in the Standard Model and its minimal supersymmetric extension, covering also related issues such as Monte Carlo generators, parton distribution functions, and pseudo-observables. This second Report represents the next natural step towards realistic predictions upon providing results on cross sections with benchmark cuts, differential distributions, details of specific decay channels, and further recent developments.

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arXiv2011

Transverse-momentum resummation: Higgs boson production at the Tevatron and the LHC

We consider the transverse-momentum (q_T) distribution of Standard Model Higgs bosons produced by gluon fusion in hadron collisions. At small q_T (q_T<<m_H, m_H being the mass of the Higgs boson), we resum the logarithmically-enhanced contributions due to multiple soft-gluon emission to all order in QCD perturbation theory. At intermediate and large values of q_T (q_T <~m_H), we consistently combine resummation with the known fixed-order results. We use the most advanced perturbative information that is available at present: next-to-next-to-leading logarithmic resummation combined with the next-to-leading fixed-order calculation. We extend previous results including exactly all the perturbative terms up to order alphas^4 in our computation and, after integration over q_T, we recover the known next-to-next-to-leading order result for the total cross section. We present numerical results at the Tevatron and the LHC, together with an estimate of the corresponding uncertainties. Our calculation is implemented in an updated version of the numerical code HqT.

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arXiv2011

Associated WH production at hadron colliders: a fully exclusive QCD calculation at NNLO

We consider QCD radiative corrections to Standard Model Higgs boson production in association with a W boson in hadron collisions. We present a fully exclusive calculation up to next-to-next-to-leading order (NNLO) in QCD perturbation theory. To perform this NNLO computation, we use a recently proposed version of the subtraction formalism. Our calculation includes finite-width effects, the leptonic decay of the W boson with its spin correlations, and the decay of the Higgs boson into a bbbar pair. We present selected numerical results at the Tevatron and the LHC.

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arXiv2011

Production of Drell--Yan lepton pairs in hadron collisions: transverse-momentum resummation at next-to-next-to-leading logarithmic accuracy

We consider the transverse-momentum (q_T) distribution of Drell--Yan lepton pairs produced in hadron collisions. At small values of q_T, we resum the logarithmically-enhanced perturbative QCD contributions up to next-to-next-to-leading logarithmic accuracy. At intermediate and large values of q_T, we consistently combine resummation with the known next-to-leading order perturbative result. All perturbative terms up to order alpha_S^2 are included in our computation which, after integration over q_T, reproduces the known next-to-next-to-leading order result for the Drell--Yan total cross section. We show and discuss the reduction in the scale dependence of the results with respect to lower-order calculations, estimating the corresponding perturbative uncertainty. We present a preliminary comparison with Tevatron Run II data.

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