arXiv subjects

Giulia Zanderighi

Publications and source records attributed to Giulia Zanderighi.

At least 91 records · Page 5Linked to original sources

arXiv2012

Next-to-leading order QCD corrections to electroweak Zjj production in the POWHEGBOX

We present an implementation of electroweak Z-boson production in association with two jets at hadron colliders in the POWHEG framework, a method that allows the interfacing of NLO-QCD calculations with parton-shower Monte Carlo programs. We focus on the leptonic decays of the weak gauge boson, and take photonic and non-resonant contributions to the matrix elements fully into account. We provide results for observables of particular importance for the suppression of QCD backgrounds to vector-boson fusion processes by means of central-jet-veto techniques. While parton-shower effects are small for most observables associated with the two hardest jets, they can be more pronounced for distributions that are employed in central-jet-veto studies.

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arXiv2012

MINLO: Multi-scale improved NLO

In the present work we consider the assignment of the factorization and renormalization scales in hadron collider processes with associated jet production, at next-to-leading order (NLO) in perturbation theory. We propose a simple, definite prescription to this end, including Sudakov form factors to consistently account for the distinct kinematic scales occuring in such collisions. The scheme yields results that are accurate at NLO and, for a large class of observables, it resums to all orders the large logarithms that arise from kinematic configurations involving disparate scales. In practical terms the method is most simply understood as an NLO extension of the matrix element reweighting procedure employed in tree level matrix element-parton shower merging algorithms. By way of a proof-of-concept, we apply the method to Higgs and Z boson production in association with up to two jets.

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arXiv2012

Gluon fusion contribution to W+W- + jet production

We describe the computation of the $gg \to W^+W^-g$ process that contributes to the production of two $W$-bosons and a jet at the CERN Large Hadron Collider (LHC). While formally of next-to-next-to-leading order (NNLO) in QCD, this process can be evaluated separately from the bulk of NNLO QCD corrections because it is finite and gauge-invariant. It is also enhanced by the large gluon flux and by selection cuts employed in the Higgs boson searches in the decay channel $ H \to W^+W^-$, as was first pointed out by Binoth {\it et al.} in the context of $gg \to W^+W^-$ production. For cuts employed by the ATLAS collaboration, we find that the gluon fusion contribution to $pp \to W^+W^-j$ enhances the background by about ten percent and can lead to moderate distortions of kinematic distributions which are instrumental for the ongoing Higgs boson searches at the LHC. We also release a public code to compute the NLO QCD corrections to this process, in the form of an add-on to the package {\tt MCFM}.

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arXiv2012

QCD and Collider Processes

I review the status of today's theoretical description of Standard Model processes relevant for Tevatron and LHC analyses, and of the tools that are used in phenomenological studies. I will also discuss a few recent ideas to further refine our abilities to perform technically challenging calculations.

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arXiv2011

NLO corrections to electroweak and QCD production of W+W+ plus two jets in the POWHEGBOX

We present the matching of the next-to-leading order QCD calculation for W+W+jj production via vector-boson fusion in hadronic collisions to parton-shower Monte-Carlo programs according to the POWHEG method. Our implementation complements existing code for QCD-induced W+W+jj production in the POWHEGBOX package, thereby providing a platform for the complete Standard Model production of W+W+jj events via QCD and electroweak interactions. The impact of parton-shower effects is discussed for various distributions and found to be small in most cases. However, few observables, that are relevant for analyses using a central jet veto, are modified significantly when they are interfaced to a parton shower program.

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arXiv2011

W+W-, WZ and ZZ production in the POWHEG BOX

We present an implementation of the vector boson pair production processes ZZ, W+W- and W Z within the POWHEG framework, which is a method that allows the interfacing of NLO calculations to shower Monte Carlo programs. The implementation is built within the POWHEG BOX package. The Z/γ^* interference, as well as singly resonant contributions, are properly included. We also considered interference terms arising from identical leptons in the final state. As a result, all contributions leading to the desired four-lepton system have been included in the calculation, with the sole exception of the interference between ZZ and W+W- in the production of a pair of same-flavour, oppositely charged fermions and a pair of neutrinos, which we show to be fully negligible. Anomalous trilinear couplings can be also set in the program, and we give some examples of their effect at the LHC. We have made the relevant code available at the POWHEG BOX web site.

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arXiv2011

Scalar one-loop integrals for QCD

We construct a basis set of infra-red and/or collinearly divergent scalar one-loop integrals and give analytic formulas, for tadpole, bubble, triangle and box integrals, regulating the divergences (ultra-violet, infra-red or collinear) by regularization in $D=4-2ε$ dimensions. For scalar triangle integrals we give results for our basis set containing 6 divergent integrals. For scalar box integrals we give results for our basis set containing 16 divergent integrals. We provide analytic results for the 5 divergent box integrals in the basis set which are missing in the literature. Building on the work of van Oldenborgh, a general, publicly available code has been constructed, which calculates both finite and divergent one-loop integrals. The code returns the coefficients of $1/ε^2,1/ε^1$ and $1/ε^0$ as complex numbers for an arbitrary tadpole, bubble, triangle or box integral.

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arXiv2011

Next-to-leading order QCD predictions for W+W+jj production at the LHC

Because the LHC is a proton-proton collider, sizable production of two positively charged W-bosons in association with two jets is possible. This process leads to a distinct signature of same sign high-pt leptons, missing energy and jets. We compute the NLO QCD corrections to the QCD-mediated part of pp -> W+W+jj. These corrections reduce the dependence of the production cross-section on the renormalization and factorization scale to about +- 10 percent. We find that a large number of W+W+jj events contain a relatively hard third jet. The presence of this jet should help to either pick up the W+W+jj signal or to reject it as an unwanted background.

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arXiv2011

NLO QCD corrections for W^+W^- pair production in association with two jets at hadron colliders

We compute the NLO QCD corrections to the pair production of W-bosons in association with two jets at the Tevatron and the LHC. This process is an important background to heavy Higgs-boson production in association with two jets, either in gluon or weak boson fusion. We consider leptonic decays of W-bosons and include all the spin correlations exactly. For natural choices of the renormalization scale, the NLO QCD corrections to pp(ppbar) -> W^+W^-jj are moderate but different for various values of the center-of-mass collision energy at the LHC and the Tevatron, emphasizing the need to compute them explicitly.

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arXiv2011

W^+W^+ plus dijet production in the POWHEGBOX

We present an implementation of the calculation of the production of W^+W^+ plus two jets at hadron colliders, at next-to-leading order (NLO) in QCD, in the POWHEG framework, which is a method that allows the interfacing of NLO calculations to shower Monte Carlo programs. This is the first 2 -> 4 process to be described to NLO accuracy within a shower Monte Carlo framework. The implementation was built within the POWHEGBOX package. We discuss a few technical improvements that were needed in the POWHEGBOX to deal with the computer intensive nature of the NLO calculation, and argue that further improvements are possible, so that the method can match the complexity that is reached today in NLO calculations. We have interfaced our POWHEG implementation with PYTHIA and HERWIG, and present some phenomenological results, discussing similarities and differences between the pure NLO and the POWHEG+PYTHIA calculation both for inclusive and more exclusive distributions. We have made the relevant code available at the POWHEGBOX web site.

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arXiv2010

NLO QCD corrections to five-jet production at LEP and the extraction of alpha_s(M_Z)

The highest exclusive jet multiplicity studied at LEP experiments is five. In this paper we compute the next-to-leading order QCD corrections to e+e- annihilation to five jets, essentially closing the (pure) perturbative QCD studies of exclusive jetty final states at LEP. We compare fixed-order perturbative results with ALEPH data. We estimate hadronization corrections to five-jet observables using the event generator SHERPA, which employs the CKKW procedure to combine a reliable perturbative treatment of high-multiplicity jet final states with parton showers. We show that a competitive value of the strong coupling constant alpha_s(M_Z) = 0.1156 +0.0041 -0.0034 can be extracted from the distribution of the five-jet resolution parameter and the five-jet rate at LEP1 and LEP2.

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arXiv2010

Phenomenology of event shapes at hadron colliders

We present results for matched distributions of a range of dijet event shapes at hadron colliders, combining next-to-leading logarithmic (NLL) accuracy in the resummation exponent, next-to-next-to leading logarithmic (NNLL) accuracy in its expansion and next-to-leading order (NLO) accuracy in a pure alpha_s expansion. This is the first time that such a matching has been carried out for hadronic final-state observables at hadron colliders. We compare our results to Monte Carlo predictions, with and without matching to multi-parton tree-level fixed-order calculations. These studies suggest that hadron-collider event shapes have significant scope for constraining both perturbative and non-perturbative aspects of hadron-collider QCD. The differences between various calculational methods also highlight the limits of relying on simultaneous variations of renormalisation and factorisation scale in making reliable estimates of uncertainties in QCD predictions. We also discuss the sensitivity of event shapes to the topology of multi-jet events, which are expected to appear in many New Physics scenarios.

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arXiv2009

W+3 jet production at the LHC as a signal or background

We discuss the production of W bosons in association with three jets at the LHC. We investigate how next-to-leading order QCD corrections modify basic kinematic distributions of jets and leptons. We also address the magnitude of NLO QCD effects in W+3 jet observables, relevant for SUSY searches at the LHC.

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arXiv2009

W+3 jet production at the Tevatron

We compute the next-to-leading order QCD corrections to the production of W bosons in association with three jets at the Tevatron in the leading color approximation, which we define by considering the number of colors and the number of light flavors as being of the same order of magnitude. The theoretical uncertainty in the next-to-leading order prediction for the cross-section is of the order of 15-25 percent which is a significant improvement compared to the leading order result.

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arXiv2009

Generalized unitarity at work: first NLO QCD results for hadronic W+3jet production

We compute the leading color, next-to-leading order QCD corrections to the dominant partonic channels for the production of a W boson in association with three jets at the Tevatron and the LHC. This is the first application of generalized unitarity for realistic one-loop calculations. The method performs well in this non-trivial test and offers great promise for the future.

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arXiv2008

One-loop amplitudes for W+3 jet production in hadron collisions

We employ the recently developed method of generalized $D$-dimensional unitarity to compute one-loop virtual corrections to all scattering amplitudes relevant for the production of a $W$ boson in association with three jets in hadronic collisions, treating all quarks as massless.

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arXiv2007

Four-fermion production near the W pair production threshold

We perform a dedicated study of the four-fermion production process e- e+ -> mu- nubar_mu u dbar X near the W pair-production threshold in view of the importance of this process for a precise measurement of the W boson mass. Accurate theoretical predictions for this process require a systematic treatment of finite-width effects. We use unstable-particle effective field theory (EFT) to perform an expansion in the coupling constants, GammaW/MW, and the non-relativistic velocity v of the W boson up to next-to-leading order in GammaW/MW ~ alpha_ew ~ v^2. We find that the dominant theoretical uncertainty in MW is currently due to an incomplete treatment of initial-state radiation. The remaining uncertainty of the NLO EFT calculation translates into delta MW ~ 10-15 MeV, and to about 5 MeV with additional input from the NLO four-fermion calculation in the full theory.

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arXiv2007

Next-to-Leading order Higgs + 2 jet production via gluon fusion

We present phenomenological results for the production of a Higgs boson in association with two jets at the LHC. The calculation is performed in the limit of large top mass and is accurate to next-to-leading order in the strong coupling, i.e. ${\cal O}(α_s^6)$

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