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Gionata Luisoni

Publications and source records attributed to Gionata Luisoni.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

$C$-parameter hadronisation in the symmetric 3-jet limit and impact on $α_s$ fits

Hadronisation corrections are crucial in extractions of the strong coupling constant ($α_s$) from event-shape distributions at lepton colliders. Although their dynamics cannot be understood rigorously using perturbative methods, their dominant effect on physical observables can be estimated in singular configurations sensitive to the emission of soft radiation. The differential distributions of some event-shape variables, notably the $C$ parameter, feature two such singular points. We analytically compute the leading non-perturbative correction in the symmetric three-jet limit for the $C$ parameter, and find that it differs by more than a factor of two from the known result in the two-jet limit. We estimate the impact of this result on strong coupling extractions, considering a range of functions to interpolate the hadronisation correction in the region between the 2 and 3-jet limits. Fitting data from ALEPH and JADE, we find that most interpolation choices increase the extracted $α_s$, with effects of up to $4\%$ relative to standard fits. This brings a new perspective on the long-standing discrepancy between certain event-shape $α_s$ fits and the world average.

hep-ph

NNLO QCD corrections to associated $WH$ production and $H \to b \bar b$ decay

We present a computation of the next-to-next-to-leading order (NNLO) QCD corrections to the production of a Higgs boson in association with a W boson at the LHC and the subsequent decay of the Higgs boson into a b-bbar pair, treating the b-quarks as massless. We consider various kinematic distributions and find significant corrections to observables that resolve the Higgs decay products. We also find that a cut on the transverse momentum of the W boson, important for experimental analyses, may have a significant impact on kinematic distributions and radiative corrections. We show that some of these effects can be adequately described by simulating QCD radiation in Higgs boson decays to b-quarks using parton showers. We also describe contributions to Higgs decay to a b-bbar pair that first appear at NNLO and that were not considered in previous fully-differential computations. The calculation of NNLO QCD corrections to production and decay sub-processes is carried out within the nested soft-collinear subtraction scheme presented by some of us earlier this year. We demonstrate that this subtraction scheme performs very well, allowing a computation of the coefficient of the second order QCD corrections at the level of a few per mill.

hep-ph

QCD resummation for hadronic final states

We review the basic concepts of all-order calculations in Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD) and their application to collider phenomenology. We start by discussing the factorization properties of QCD amplitudes and cross-sections in the soft and collinear limits and their resulting all-order exponentiation. We then discuss several applications of this formalism to observables which are of great interest at particle colliders. In this context, we describe the all-order resummation of event-shape distributions, as well as observables that probe the internal structure of hadronic jets.

hep-ph

Spin Polarisation of $t\bar{t}γγ$ production at NLO+PS with GoSam interfaced to MadGraph5_aMC@NLO

We present an interface between the multipurpose NLO Monte Carlo tool MadGraph5_aMC@NLO and the automated one-loop amplitude generator GoSam. As a first application of this novel framework, we compute the NLO corrections to $pp \to t\bar{t}H$ and $pp \to t\bar{t}γγ$ matched to a parton shower. In the phenomenological analyses of these processes, we focus our attention on observables which are sensitive to the polarisation of the top quarks.

hep-ph

ZZ production in gluon fusion at NLO matched to parton-shower

We present a calculation of the next-to-leading order (NLO) QCD corrections to the hadroproduction process $gg\to ZZ \to e^+e^- μ^+ μ^-$, matched to the parton shower in the POWHEG framework. We take advantage of the POWHEG BOX tool for the implementation and rely on PYTHIA 8 for the showering and hadronization stages. We fully include $γ^*/Z$ interference effects, while also covering the single-resonant region. For this phenomenological study we focus on four lepton production as a signal process, neglecting all quark mass effects as well as the Higgs-mediated contributions, which are known to be subdominant in this case. We provide predictions from our simulations for the 13 TeV LHC Run II setup, including realistic experimental cuts.

hep-ph

Full mass dependence in Higgs boson production in association with jets at the LHC and FCC

The first computation of Higgs production in association with three jets at NLO in QCD has recently been performed using the effective theory, where the top quark is treated as an infinitely heavy particle and integrated out. This approach is restricted to the regions in phase space where the typical scales are not larger than the top quark mass. Here we investigate this statement at a quantitative level by calculating the leading-order contributions to the production of a Standard Model Higgs boson in association with up to three jets taking full top-quark and bottom-quark mass dependence into account. We find that the transverse momentum of the hardest particle or jet plays a key role in the breakdown of the effective theory predictions, and that discrepancies can easily reach an order of magnitude for transverse momenta of about 1 TeV. The impact of bottom-quark loops are found to be visible in the small transverse momentum region, leading to corrections of up to 5 percent. We further study the impact of mass corrections when VBF selection cuts are applied and when the center-of-mass energy is increased to 100 TeV.

hep-ph

Higgs + Multi-jets in Gluon Fusion

We present a detailed phenomenological analysis of the production of a Standard Model Higgs boson in association with up to three jets. The Higgs is produced via gluon fusion, which is an irreducible background to the vector boson fusion mechanism. We calculate the next-to-leading order corrections in QCD in the limit of an infinitely heavy top quark. Numerical results are presented for a large variety of observables, for different selection cuts, and for different choices of the jet tagging scheme.

hep-ph

Phenomenological analysis of Higgs boson production through gluon fusion in association with jets

We present a detailed phenomenological analysis of the production of a Standard Model Higgs boson in association with up to three jets. We consider the gluon fusion channel using an effective theory in the large top-quark mass limit. Higgs boson production in gluon fusion constitutes an irreducible background to the vector boson fusion (VBF) process; hence the precise knowledge of its characteristics is a prerequisite for any measurement in the VBF channel. The calculation is carried out at next-to-leading order (NLO) in QCD in a fully automated way by combining the two programs GoSam and Sherpa. We present numerical results for a large variety of observables for both standard cuts and VBF selection cuts. We find that for all jet multiplicities the NLO corrections are sizeable. This is particularly true in the presence of kinematic selections enhancing the VBF topology, which are based on vetoing additional jet activity. In this case, precise predictions for the background can be made using our calculation by taking the difference between the inclusive H+2 jets and the inclusive H+3 jets result.

hep-ph

Wbbj production at NLO with POWHEG+MiNLO

We present a next-to-leading order plus parton-shower event generator for the production of a W boson plus two bottom quarks and a jet at hadron colliders, implemented in the POWHEG BOX framework. Bottom-mass effects and spin correlations of the decay products of the W boson are fully taken into account. The code has been automatically generated using the two available interfaces to MadGraph4 and GoSam, the last one updated to a new version. We have applied the MiNLO prescription to our Wbbj calculation, obtaining a finite differential cross section also in the limit of vanishing jet transverse momentum. Furthermore, we have compared several key distributions for Wbbj production with those generated with a next-to-leading order plus parton-shower event generator for Wbb production, and studied their factorization- and renormalization-scale dependence. Finally, we have compared our results with recent experimental data from the ATLAS and CMS Collaborations.

hep-ph

Multi-leg One-loop Massive Amplitudes from Integrand Reduction via Laurent Expansion

We present the application of a novel reduction technique for one-loop scattering amplitudes based on the combination of the integrand reduction and Laurent expansion. We describe the general features of its implementation in the computer code NINJA, and its interface to GoSam. We apply the new reduction to a series of selected processes involving massive particles, from six to eight legs.

hep-ph

NLO QCD corrections to Higgs boson production in association with a top quark pair and a jet

We present the calculation of the cross section for Higgs boson production in association with a top quark pair plus one jet, at next-to-leading-order (NLO) accuracy in QCD. All mass dependence is retained without recurring to any approximation. After including the complete NLO QCD corrections, we observe a strong reduction in the scale dependence of the result. We also show distributions for the invariant mass of the top quark pair, with and without the additional jet, and for the transverse momentum and the pseudorapidity of the Higgs boson. Results for the virtual contributions are obtained with a novel reduction approach based on integrand decomposition via Laurent expansion, as implemented in the library Ninja. Cross sections and differential distributions are obtained with an automated setup which combines the GoSam and Sherpa frameworks.

hep-ph

Multi-loop Integrand Reduction via Multivariate Polynomial Division

We present recent developments on the topic of the integrand reduction of scattering amplitudes. Integrand-level methods allow to express an amplitude as a linear combination of Master Integrals, by performing operations on the corresponding integrands. This approach has already been successfully applied and automated at one loop, and recently extended to higher loops. We describe a coherent framework based on simple concepts of algebraic geometry, such as multivariate polynomial division, which can be used in order to obtain the integrand decomposition of any amplitude at any loop order. In the one-loop case, we discuss an improved reduction algorithm, based on the application of the Laurent series expansion to the integrands, which has been implemented in the semi-numerical library Ninja. At two loops, we present the reduction of five-point amplitudes in N=4 SYM, with a unitarity-based construction of the integrand. We also describe the multi-loop divide-and-conquer approach, which can always be used to find the integrand decomposition of any Feynman graph, regardless of the form and the complexity of the integrand, with purely algebraic operations.

hep-ph

Interfacing GoSam with Monte Carlo Event Generators

In this talk the most recent results obtained by interfacing GoSam with external Monte Carlo event generators are presented and summarized. In the last year the automatic one-loop amplitude generator GoSam has been used for the computation of several processes relevant for the LHC physics program. In the first part of the talk the latest results are summarized and the status of the interfaces to several external Monte Carlo programs, based on the Binoth-Les-Houches-Accord, is reported. The second part is dedicated to two selected computations. One concerning the associated production of a Higgs and a vector boson in association with 0 and 1 jet computed with GoSam+Powheg, and one focusing on the analysis of the forward-backward asymmetry in the production of top quark pairs using 0 and 1 jet merged samples with GoSam+Sherpa. Finally some recent results on Beyond-Standard-Model physics are also presented.

hep-ph

NLO merging in tt+jets

In this talk the application of the recently introduced methods to merge NLO calculations of successive jet multiplicities to the production of top pairs in association with jets will be discussed, in particular a fresh look is taken at the top quark forward-backward asymmetries. Emphasis will be put on the achieved theoretical accuracy and the associated perturbative and non-perturbative error estimates.

hep-ph

HW/HZ + 0 and 1 jet at NLO with the POWHEG BOX interfaced to GoSam and their merging within MiNLO

We present a generator for the production of a Higgs boson H in association with a vector boson V=W or Z (including subsequent V decay) plus zero and one jet, that can be used in conjunction with general-purpose shower Monte Carlo generators, according to the POWHEG method, as implemented within the POWHEG BOX framework. We have computed the virtual corrections using GoSam, a program for the automatic construction of virtual amplitudes. In order to do so, we have built a general interface of the POWHEG BOX to the GoSam package. With this addition, the construction of a POWHEG generator within the POWHEG BOX is now fully automatized, except for the construction of the Born phase space. Our HV + 1 jet generators can be run with the recently proposed MiNLO method for the choice of scales and the inclusion of Sudakov form factors. Since the HV production is very similar to V production, we were able to apply an improved MiNLO procedure, that was recently used in H and V production, also in the present case. This procedure is such that the resulting generator achieves NLO accuracy not only for inclusive distributions in HV + 1 jet production but also in HV production, i.e. when the associated jet is not resolved, yielding a further example of matched calculation with no matching scale.

hep-ph

Zero and one jet combined NLO analysis of the top quark forward-backward asymmetry

We present an analysis of the forward-backward asymmetry in the production of top quark pairs at the Tevatron collider. We use novel Monte Carlo methods for merging matrix elements and parton showers to combine NLO QCD predictions for tt and tt+jet production. Theoretical uncertainties are quantified in detail. We find agreement with experimental data on the transverse momentum dependence of the asymmetry.

hep-ph

Power corrections in the dispersive model for a determination of the strong coupling constant from the thrust distribution

In the context of the dispersive model for non-perturbative corrections, we extend the leading renormalon subtraction to NNLO for the thrust distribution in $e^+e^-$ annihilation. Within this framework, using a NNLL+NNLO perturbative description and including bottom quark mass effects to NLO, we analyse data in the centre-of-mass energy range $\sqrt{s}=14-206$ GeV in view of a simultaneous determination of the strong coupling constant and the non-perturbative parameter $α_0$. The fits are performed by matching the resummed and fixed-order predictions both in the R and the log-R matching schemes. The final values in the R scheme are $α_s(M_Z) = 0.1131^{+0.0028}_{-0.0022}$, $α_0(2 {\rm GeV}) = 0.538^{+0.102}_{-0.047}$.

hep-ph