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Giancarlo Ferrera

Publications and source records attributed to Giancarlo Ferrera.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources
arXiv2020

DYTurbo: Fast predictions for Drell-Yan processes

Drell-Yan lepton pair production processes are extremely important for Standard Model (SM) precision tests and for beyond the SM searches at hadron colliders. Fast and accurate predictions are essential to enable the best use of the precision measurements of these processes; they are used for parton density fits, for the extraction of fundamental parameters of the SM, and for the estimation of background processes in searches. This paper describes a new numerical program, DYTurbo, for the calculation of the QCD transverse-momentum resummation of Drell-Yan cross sections up to next-to-next-to-leading logarithmic accuracy combined with the fixed-order results at next-to-next-to-leading order ($\mathcal{O}(α_{\mathrm{S}}^2)$), including the full kinematical dependence of the decaying lepton pair with the corresponding spin correlations and the finite-width effects. The DYTurbo program is an improved reimplementation of the DYqT, DYqT and DYNNLO programs, which provides fast and numerically precise predictions through the factorisation of the cross section into production and decay variables, and the usage of quadrature rules based on interpolating functions for the integration over kinematic variables.

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arXiv2018

Combining QED and QCD transverse-momentum resummation for Z boson production at hadron colliders

We consider the transverse-momentum ($q_T$) distribution of $Z$ bosons produced in hadronic collisions. At small values of $q_T$, we perform the analytic resummation of the logarithmically enhanced QED contributions up to next-to-leading logarithmic accuracy, including the mixed QCD-QED contributions at leading logarithmic accuracy. Resummed results are consistently matched with the next-to-leading fixed-order results (i.e. $\mathcal{O}(α^2)$) at small, intermediate and large values of $q_T$. We combine the QED corrections with the known QCD results at next-to-next-to-leading order ($\mathcal{O}(α_S^2)$) and next-to-next-to-leading logarithmic accuracy. We show numerical results at LHC and Tevatron energies, studying the impact of the QED corrections and providing an estimate of the corresponding perturbative uncertainty. Our analytic results for the combined QED and QCD resummation, obtained through an extension of the $q_T$ resummation formalism in QCD, are valid for the production of generic neutral and colourless high-mass systems in hadronic collision.

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arXiv2018

Diphoton production at the LHC: a QCD study up to NNLO

We consider the production of prompt-photon pairs at the LHC and we report on a study of QCD radiative corrections up to the next-to-next-to-leading order (NNLO). We present a detailed comparison of next-to-leading order (NLO) results obtained within the standard and smooth cone isolation criteria, by studying the dependence on the isolation parameters. We highlight the role of different partonic subprocesses within the two isolation criteria, and we show that they produce large radiative corrections for both criteria. Smooth cone isolation is a consistent procedure to compute QCD radiative corrections at NLO and beyond. If photon isolation is sufficiently tight, we show that the NLO results for the two isolation procedures are consistent with each other within their perturbative uncertainties. We then extend our study to NNLO by using smooth cone isolation. We discuss the impact of the NNLO corrections and the corresponding perturbative uncertainties for both fiducial cross sections and distributions, and we comment on the comparison with some LHC data. Throughout our study we remark the main features that are produced by the kinematical selection cuts that are applied to the photons. In particular, we examine soft-gluon singularities that appear in the perturbative computations of the invariant mass distribution of the photon pair, the transverse-momentum spectra of the photons, and the fiducial cross section with asymmetric and symmetric photon transverse-momentum cuts, and we present their behaviour in analytic form.

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arXiv2018

Associated production of a Higgs boson decaying into bottom quarks at the LHC in full NNLO QCD

We consider the production of a Standard Model Higgs boson decaying to bottom quarks in association with a vector boson W/Z in hadron collisions. We present a fully exclusive calculation of QCD radiative corrections both for the production cross section and for the Higgs boson decay rate up to next-to-next-to-leading order (NNLO) accuracy. Our calculation also includes the leptonic decay of the vector boson with finite-width effects and spin correlations. We consider typical kinematical cuts applied in the experimental analyses at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) and we find that the full NNLO QCD corrections significantly decrease the accepted cross section and have a substantial impact on the shape of distributions. We point out that these additional effects are essential to obtain precise theoretical predictions to be compared with the LHC data.

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arXiv2017

Transverse-momentum resummation for Higgs boson pair production at the LHC with top-quark mass effects

We consider Higgs boson pair production via gluon fusion in hadronic collisions. We report the calculation of the transverse-momentum ($q_T$) distribution of the Higgs boson pair with top-quark mass ($M_t$) effects fully taken into account. At small values of $q_T$ we resum the logarithmically-enhanced perturbative QCD contributions up to next-to-leading logarithmic (NLL) accuracy. At intermediate and large values of $q_T$ we consistently combine resummation with the ${\cal O}(α_S^3)$ fixed-order results. After integration over $q_T$, we recover the next-to-leading order (NLO) result for the inclusive cross section with full dependence on $M_t$. We present illustrative numerical results at LHC energies, together with an estimate of the corresponding perturbative uncertainties, and we study the impact of the top-quark mass effects.

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arXiv2016

Diphoton production at hadron colliders: a fully-differential QCD calculation at NNLO

We consider direct diphoton production in hadron collisions, and we compute the next-to-next-to-leading order (NNLO) QCD radiative corrections at the fully-differential level. Our calculation uses the $q_T$ subtraction formalism and it is implemented in a parton level Monte Carlo program. The program allows the user to apply arbitrary kinematical cuts on the final-state photons and the associated jet activity, and to compute the corresponding distributions in the form of bin histograms. We present selected numerical results related to Higgs boson searches at the LHC and corresponding results at the Tevatron.

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arXiv2015

Vector boson production at hadron colliders: transverse-momentum resummation and leptonic decay

We consider the transverse-momentum ($q_T$) distribution of Drell-Yan lepton pairs produced, via $W$ and $Z/γ^*$ decay, in hadronic collisions. At small values of $q_T$, we resum the logarithmically-enhanced perturbative QCD contributions up to next-to-next-to-leading logarithmic accuracy. Resummed results are consistently combined with the known ${\mathcal O}(α_S^2)$ fixed-order results at intermediate and large values of $q_T$. Our calculation includes the leptonic decay of the vector boson with the corresponding spin correlations, the finite-width effects and the full dependence on the final-state lepton(s) kinematics. The computation is encoded in the numerical program DYRes, which allows the user to apply arbitrary kinematical cuts on the final-state leptons and to compute the corresponding distributions in the form of bin histograms. We present a comparison of our results with some of the available LHC data. The inclusion of the leptonic decay in the resummed calculation requires a theoretical discussion on the $q_T$ recoil due to the transverse momentum of the produced vector boson. We present a $q_T$ recoil procedure that is directly applicable to $q_T$ resummed calculations for generic production processes of high-mass systems in hadron collisions.

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arXiv2014

Associated ZH production at hadron colliders: the fully differential NNLO QCD calculation

We consider Standard Model Higgs boson production in association with a Z boson in hadron collisions. We present a fully exclusive computation of QCD radiative corrections up to next-to-next-to-leading order (NNLO). Our calculation includes the Higgs boson decay to bottom quarks (b) in next-to-leading order QCD and the leptonic decay of the Z boson with finite-width effects and spin correlations. The computation is implemented in a parton level Monte Carlo program that makes possible to consider arbitrary kinematical cuts on the final-state leptons, the b jets and the associated QCD radiation, and to compute the corresponding distributions in the form of bin histograms. We assess the impact of QCD radiative effects in the boosted kinematics at the LHC and show that the inclusion of the NNLO corrections is crucial to control the pT spectrum of the Higgs boson candidate.

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arXiv2014

Higher-order QCD effects for associated WH production and decay at the LHC

We consider Standard Model Higgs boson production in association with a W boson in hadron collisions. We supplement the fully exclusive perturbative computation of QCD radiative effects up to next-to-next-to-leading order (NNLO) with the computation of the decay of the Higgs boson into a bb pair at next-to-leading order (NLO). We consider the selection cuts that are typically applied in the LHC experimental analysis, and we compare our fixed-order predictions with the results obtained with the MC@NLO event generator. We find that NLO corrections to the H -> bb decay can be important to obtain a reliable pT spectrum of the Higgs boson, but that, in the cases of interest, their effect is well accounted for by the parton shower Monte Carlo. NNLO corrections to the production process typically decrease the cross section by an amount which depends on the detail of the applied cuts, but they have a mild effect on the shape of the Higgs pT spectrum. We also discuss the effect of QCD radiative corrections on the invariant mass distribution of the Higgs candidate.

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arXiv2010

NNLO QCD correction to vector boson production at hadron colliders

We present a fully-exclusive next-to-next-to-leading order (NNLO) QCD calculation for vector boson production in hadron-hadron collisions. The calculation is implemented in a parton level Monte Carlo program, which includes the gamma-Z interference, finite-width effects, the leptonic decay of the vector bosons and the corresponding spin correlations. The code allows the user to apply arbitrary (though infrared safe) kinematical cuts on the final-states and to compute distributions in the form of bin histograms. We show some illustrative numerical results at the Tevatron and the LHC.

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arXiv2009

Inclusive Measure of |V_ub| with the Analytic Coupling Model

By analyzing B -> X_u l nu_l spectra with a model based on soft-gluon resummation and an analytic time-like QCD coupling, we obtain |V_ub| = (3.76 +-0.13 +- 0.22)*10^(-3), where the first and the second error refers to experimental and theoretical errors, respectively. The V_ub value is obtained from the available measured semileptonic branching fractions in limited regions of the phase-space. The distributions in the lepton energy E_l, the hadron invariant mass m_X, the light-cone momentum P_+ = E_X - p_X, together with the double distributions in (m_X,q^2) and (E_l,s_h^max), are used to select the phase-space regions. The q^2 is the dilepton squared momentum and s_h^max is the maximal m_X^2 at fixed q^2 and E_l. The V_ub value obtained is in complete agreement with the value coming from exclusive B decays and from an over-all fit to the Standard Model parameters. We show that the slight disagreement (up to +2 sigma) with respect to previous inclusive measurements is not related to different choices for the b (and c) masses but to a different modelling of the threshold (Sudakov) region.

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arXiv2008

Comment on Resummation of Mass Distribution for Jets Initiated by Massive Quarks

We compute in the heavy quark effective theory the soft coefficient D_2 entering the resummation of next-to-next-to-leading threshold logarithms for jets initiated by a quark with a small mass compared to the hard scale of the process. We find complete agreement with a previous computation in full QCD. Contrary to our previous guess, this coefficient turns out to be different from that one entering heavy flavor decay or heavy flavor fragmentation.

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arXiv2008

Triple Higgs boson production at the ILC within a generic Two-Higgs-Doublet Model

We present a study of triple Higgs boson (3H) production at the International Linear Collider (ILC) within the general Two-Higgs-Doublet Model (2HDM). We compute the production cross-sections at the leading-order for the 3H final states and find values up to sigma ~ 0.1 pb. This result represents a large enhancement with respect to the corresponding MSSM cross-sections, which stay typically at the level of sigma ~ 10^(-6) pb or less. Furthermore, since the 3H cross-sections in the general 2HDM can be of the order of the double Higgs production cross-sections, such 3H processes could be a competitive (if not the dominant) mechanism for Higgs boson production at the ILC. In practice, these 3H events could be identified through the tagging of 6 heavy-quark jet final states and, in this case, they would provide strong evidence of an extended Higgs boson sector -- likely of non-supersymmetric nature.

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arXiv2007

Charm-quark fragmentation with an effective coupling constant

We use a recently proposed non-perturbative model, based on an effective strong coupling constant and free from tunable parameters, to study c-flavoured hadron production in e+e- annihilation. Charm-quark production is described in the framework of perturbative fragmentation functions, with NLO coefficient functions, NLL non-singlet DGLAP evolution and NNLL large-x resummation. We model hadronization effects by means of the effective coupling constant in the NNLO approximation and compare our results with experimental data taken at the Z0 pole and at the Upsilon(4S) resonance. We find that, within the experimental and theoretical uncertainties, our model is able to give a reasonable description of D*+-meson spectra from ALEPH for x<1-Lambda/m_c. More serious discrepancies are instead present when comparing with D and D^* data from BELLE and CLEO in x-space. Within the errors, our model is nonetheless capable of reproducing the first ten Mellin moments of all considered data sets. However, the fairly large theoretical uncertainties call for a full NNLO/NNLL analysis.

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arXiv2007

Triple Higgs boson production in the Linear Collider

Triple Higgs boson production (3H) may provide essential information to reconstruct the Higgs potential. We consider 3H-production in the International Linear Collider (ILC) both in the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model (MSSM) and in the general Two-Higgs-doublet Model (2HDM). We compute the total cross-section for the various 3H final states, such as H^+ H^- h^0, H^0 A^0 h^0, etc. and compare with the more traditional double Higgs (2H) boson production processes. While the cross-sections for the 2H final states lie within the same order of magnitude in both the MSSM and 2HDM, we find that for the 3H states the maximum 2HDM cross-sections, being of order 0.1 pb, are much larger than the MSSM ones which in most cases are of order 10^{-6} pb or less. Actually, the 3H processes could be the dominant mechanism for Higgs boson production in the 2HDM. Ultimately the origin of the remarkable enhancement of the 3H channels in the 2HDM case (for both type I and type II models) originates in the structure of the trilinear Higgs boson couplings. The extremely clean environment of the ILC should allow a relatively comfortable tagging of the three Higgs boson events. In view of the fact that the MSSM contribution is negligible, these events should manifest themselves mainly in the form of 6 heavy-quark jet final states. Some of these signatures could be spectacular, and in case of being detected would constitute strong evidence of an extended Higgs sector of non-supersymmetric origin.

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arXiv2007

Resummed Mass Distribution for Jets Initiated by Massive Quarks

We resum the invariant mass distribution of jets initiated by massive quarks in next-to-leading logarithmic approximation and beyond in heuristic way. We find that the inclusion of mass terms, in the N-moment space, results in the universal factor delta_N(Q^2;m^2), taking into account dead-cone effects and soft radiation characteristic of massive charges. This factor multiplies the massless jet distribution function J_N(Q^2). The variable N is rescaled by the mass correction parameter r = m^2/Q^2 << 1 with respect to the standard massless case, being m the quark mass and Q the hard scale. The functions A(alpha_S) and B(alpha_S), appear with a minus sign suppressing collinear effects at large N, as expected. In the same region, soft radiation not collinearly enhanced, characteristic of massive charges, makes its appearance with the function D(alpha_S). Phenomenological applications, such as the resummation of b --> c l nu decay spectra or the inclusion of beauty mass effects in t --> b W decays, are briefly sketched.

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arXiv2007

Threshold Resummation in B --> X_c l nu_l Decays

We compute the QCD form factor resumming threshold logarithms in B --> X_c + l + nu_l decays to next-to-leading logarithmic approximation. We present an interpolation formula including soft as well as collinear effects softened by the non-vanishing charm mass.

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