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Gudrun Heinrich

Publications and source records attributed to Gudrun Heinrich.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
arXiv2026

Higgs Boson Pair Production via Gluon Fusion: Higher-Order Corrections and Theoretical Uncertainties

In this contribution, the higher-order QCD and electroweak corrections to Standard Model Higgs boson pair production via the gluon-fusion mechanism, $gg\to hh$, are summarized and the different sources of theoretical uncertainty are assessed. The discussion includes finite top quark mass effects, matching to parton showers, approximate NNLO and N$^3$LO QCD corrections, NLO electroweak effects, and uncertainties associated with the top quark mass scheme and perturbative scale choices. In addition, we provide an updated state-of-the-art recommendation for the inclusive gluon-fusion Higgs boson pair production cross section and the corresponding Higgs boson pair invariant-mass distribution.

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arXiv2026

Higgs boson pair production in SMEFT: shape and truncation studies

We present a comparative study of the influence of Wilson coefficients on Higgs boson pair production cross sections in SMEFT up to dimension-6, also including loop-suppressed operators. Our study accounts for NLO QCD corrections, and is based on updated parametrizations of the cross section as a polynomial in the Wilson coefficients. We focus on differential distributions for the Higgs boson pair invariant mass, as well as the transverse momenta of the leading Higgs bosons, identifying benchmark scenarios exhibiting pronounced shape distortions in the $m_{hh}$ and $p_{T,h}$ distributions. While some of these scenarios remain physically meaningful under a purely linear truncation of the SMEFT expansion, others yield unphysical differential cross sections when quadratic dimension-6 contributions are omitted, exposing the breakdown of the linear approximation for large anomalous couplings.

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arXiv2026

Electroweak corrections to Higgs boson pair production: The quark channel

We present the mixed QCD-electroweak corrections to Higgs boson pair production in the quark-antiquark channel. The virtual amplitudes are computed fully analytically using the method of differential equations. We determine the integration constants by matching our expressions to the large mass expansion limit of the canonical integrals. We implement the results in the POWHEG-BOX framework for phenomenological studies. The corrections are found to have a significant impact on the shapes of differential cross sections, reaching up to +10% for the invariant mass distribution of the Higgs boson pair near the production threshold. This channel has not been considered before in calculations of the next-to-leading order electroweak corrections to Higgs boson pair production.

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arXiv2026

NLO QCD corrections to the electroweak production of a Higgs boson pair in the quark-antiquark channel

Higgs boson pair production in the massless quark-antiquark channel proceeds at leading order (LO) via electroweak boson loops. We calculate the next-to-leading order QCD corrections to this process. For the corresponding two-loop amplitudes, an analytic representation has been achieved. Even though the size of this contribution at the level of total cross sections is below 1% compared to the LO gluon channel, the effect on differential observables can be in the 10% range and therefore this contribution should be taken into account when comparing to LHC data.

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arXiv2026

How to Trust Learned Loop Amplitudes

Higher-order theory predictions are crucial for the precision LHC program, but the time-consuming amplitude evaluation challenges the corresponding Monte-Carlo simulations. Machine-learned amplitude surrogates can resolve this problem, if we can guarantee their precision over the entire phase space. First, we show that our surrogates provide a calibrated learned uncertainty, even for non-Gaussian systematics; second, we describe how less accurate phase space regions can be identified; third, we demonstrate how the precision in these regions can be improved reliably.

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arXiv2025

Towards the full NLO electro-weak corrections to Higgs boson pair production

Constraining the Higgs boson self-interaction is one of the main goals for the high luminosity phase of the LHC. A promising channel to this aim is the simultaneous production of two Higgs bosons from gluon fusion. For the interpretation of the data, precise theoretical predictions, also for differential cross sections, are needed. Following current projections this requires electroweak corrections at next-to-leading order. We present the contributions of top-Yukawa and Higgs self-interaction-type, as well as the first steps towards inclusion of the complete NLO electroweak corrections.

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arXiv2025

State-of-the-art electroweak Higgs boson pair production in association with two jets at the LHC in the Standard Model and beyond

We present a systematic comparison of two state-of-the-art tools for the simulation of Higgs boson pair production via vector boson fusion (VBF) as implemented in the Monte-Carlo tools GoSam+Whizard and the POWHEG-BOX. Cross sections and distributions are provided within the Standard Model and beyond, within scenarios typical for experimental physics analyses, and for a range of energies of relevance to the LHC and its upcoming high luminosity phase. We further perform a detailed study of the so-called VBF approximation, in particular in the presence of anomalous Higgs boson couplings.

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arXiv2025

Do large QCD corrections to di-Higgs decay survive parton showering? A study of $HH\to b\bar{b}\gamma\gamma$

While significant effort has been devoted to precision calculations of the production of two Higgs bosons via gluon fusion, the treatment of their decays in this process has only recently begun to attract attention. It has been found that fixed-order QCD corrections to fiducial di-Higgs decay rates involving the $b\bar{b}$ decay channel can be substantial. Considering $HH\to b\bar{b}\gamma\gamma$, we show that such corrections arise predominantly from sensitivity to soft and collinear QCD radiation at fixed order, and that they are largely washed out once parton showers are included.

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arXiv2025

Perturbative QCD

We give an introduction to perturbative Quantum Chromodynamics, focusing on a pedagogical description of concepts and methods to calculate cross sections measured at high energy colliders. After introducing basic concepts that allow for a perturbative expansion, such as factorisation and asymptotic freedom, we introduce loop integrals and the treatment of ultraviolet and infrared divergences in QCD. The definition of jets and event shape observables is also discussed. Finally, we give a brief overview of the current state of the art.

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arXiv2025

$gg \to ZH$ : updated predictions at NLO QCD

We present state-of-the-art predictions for the inclusive cross section of gluon-initiated $ZH$ production, following the recommendations of the LHC Higgs Working Group. In particular, we include NLO QCD corrections, where the virtual corrections are obtained from the combination of a forward expansion and a high-energy expansion, and the real corrections are exact. The expanded results for the virtual corrections are compared in detail to full numerical results. The updated predictions show a reduction of the scale uncertainties to the level of 15%, and they include an estimate of the top-mass-scheme uncertainty.

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arXiv2025

EERAD3 version 2: QCD corrections in hadronic colour-singlet decays

We present a major update of the publicly available EERAD3 package to calculate perturbative corrections in the strong coupling in hadronic Higgs and $Z$-boson decays. We describe the theoretical framework underlying the numerical implementation and provide a guide to the usage of the program.

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arXiv2025

Double Higgs Production in Vector Boson Fusion at NLO QCD in HEFT

We present the next-to-leading order QCD corrections to Higgs boson pair production in vector boson fusion, including the leading operators in the framework of Higgs Effective Field Theory (HEFT). The corresponding calculation is based on an automated interface between the Monte Carlo event generator Whizard and the one-loop amplitude generator GoSam. The QCD corrections also include non-factorising diagrams and diagrams of Higgs-Strahlung type, thus going beyond the structure function approach. We find that some constellations of anomalous couplings, while being well within the current experimental constraints, can have a significant impact on the shape of typical observables for this process.

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arXiv2024

Precise Determination of the Strong Coupling Constant from Dijet Cross Sections up to the Multi-TeV Range

We determine the value of the strong coupling $\alpha_\text{s}$ and study its running over a wide range of scales as probed by the dijet production process at hadron colliders, based on an NNLO QCD analysis of LHC dijet data. From a large subset of these data a value of $\alpha_\text{s} (m_\text{Z}) = 0.1178 \pm 0.0022$ is obtained for the strong coupling at the scale of the Z-boson mass $m_\text{Z}$, using the invariant mass of the dijet system to select the scale where $\alpha_\text{s}$ is probed. The combination of different data sets enhances the reach and precision of the analysis in the mutli-TeV range and allows for the first determination of $\alpha_\text{s}$ up to scales of 7 TeV. Complementing the LHC data with dijet cross sections measured at the HERA electron-proton collider, the kinematic range is extended to test the running of the strong coupling towards smaller scales. Our results exhibit excellent agreement with predictions based on the renormalization group equation of QCD, and represent a comprehensive test of the asymptotic behavior of QCD, spanning more than three orders of magnitude in energy scale.

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arXiv2024

Interpolating amplitudes

The calculation of scattering amplitudes at higher orders in perturbation theory has reached a high degree of maturity. However, their usage to produce physical predictions within Monte Carlo programs is often precluded by the slow evaluation of two- and higher-loop virtual amplitudes, particularly those calculated numerically. As a remedy, interpolation frameworks have been successfully used for amplitudes depending on up to two kinematic invariants. For amplitude interpolation with more variables, such as the five dimensions of a 2 -> 3 phase space, efficient and reliable solutions are sparse. This work aims to pave the way for using amplitude interpolation in higher-dimensional phase spaces by reviewing state-of-the-art interpolation methods, and assessing their performance on a selection of 2 -> 3 scattering amplitudes. Specifically, we investigate interpolation methods based on polynomials, splines, spatially adaptive sparse grids, and neural networks (multilayer perceptron and Lorentz-Equivariant Geometric Algebra Transformer), all under the constraint of limited obtainable data. Our additional aim is to motivate further studies of the interpolation of scattering amplitudes among both physicists and mathematicians.

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arXiv2024

Effective Field Theory descriptions of Higgs boson pair production

Higgs boson pair production is traditionally considered to be of particular interest for a measurement of the trilinear Higgs self-coupling. Yet it can offer insights into other couplings as well, since - in an effective field theory (EFT) parameterisation of potential new physics - both the production cross section and kinematical properties of the Higgs boson pair depend on various other Wilson coefficients of EFT operators. This note summarises the ongoing efforts related to the development of EFT tools for Higgs boson pair production in gluon fusion, and provides recommendations for the use of distinct EFT parameterisations in the Higgs boson pair production process. This document also outlines where further efforts are needed and provides a detailed analysis of theoretical uncertainties. Additionally, benchmark scenarios are updated. We also re-derive a parameterisation of the next-to-leading order (NLO) QCD corrections in terms of the EFT Wilson coefficients both for the total cross section and the distribution in the invariant mass of the Higgs boson pair, providing for the first time also the covariance matrix. A reweighting procedure making use of the newly derived coefficients is validated, which can be used to significantly speed up experimental analyses.

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arXiv2024

Renormalisation group effects in SMEFT for di-Higgs production

We study the effects of renormalisation group running for the Wilson coefficients of dimension-6 operators contributing to Higgs boson pair production in gluon fusion within Standard Model Effective Field Theory (SMEFT). The running of these Wilson coefficients has been implemented in the NLO QCD code ggHH_SMEFT, which is publicly available within the Powheg-Box-V2 framework.

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arXiv2024

Probing anomalous Higgs boson couplings in Higgs plus jet production at NLO QCD with full $m_t$-dependence

We present NLO QCD results for Higgs boson production in association with one jet, including anomalous Higgs-top and effective Higgs-gluon couplings within non-linear Effective Field Theory (HEFT), as well as the full top quark mass dependence. We provide differential results for the Higgs boson transverse momentum spectrum at $\sqrt{s}=13.6$ TeV and discuss the effects of the anomalous couplings.

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