arXiv subjects

Jakob Linder

Publications and source records attributed to Jakob Linder.

4 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Higher-order effects in amplitude-assisted polarisation extraction with machine-learning techniques

With increasing experimental precision, the prospect of extracting the polarisation of electroweak gauge bosons is becoming particularly attractive. To this end, regression and classification procedures based on precise and accurate theoretical predictions are becoming increasingly important. In this work, we present the first amplitude-assisted regression procedure at next-to-leading-order accuracy in QCD, supplemented with parton-shower effects, using machine-learning techniques to extract the rate of longitudinal-boson production in high-energy collisions. Several neural-network architectures are presented and benchmarked against a standard random-forest regressor, demonstrating the robustness of the results for di-boson production at the LHC.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2026

Matrix element method at NLO: A fine proof of concept in POWHEG

The matrix element method (MEM) provides a fully probabilistic approach to confront experimental events with theory, retaining all correlations in the scattering matrix element. While leading-order MEM is widely used and automated, extending it to next-to-leading order (NLO) in QCD is challenging due to infrared divergences, negative weights, extra final-state partons, and multi-dimensional phase-space integration. We demonstrate that the POWHEG method offers a practical path to MEM at NLO accuracy. By projecting real-emission events onto Born kinematics via the mappings inherited from the $\tilde{B} (\Phi)$ function, our method consistently includes the hardest QCD radiation while preserving the NLO-accurate normalization. As a proof of concept, we apply it to fully leptonic $W^+ W^-$ production in the Standard Model (SM) effective field theory, focusing on a CP-even dimension-six triple-gauge-boson operator. Our NLO MEM implementation acts as a near-optimal classifier, exploiting spin- and polarization-dependent correlations among the final-state leptons to efficiently distinguish beyond-the-SM (BSM) from SM events. This demonstrates the potential of MEM at NLO for precision studies of electroweak processes and subtle BSM effects.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2025

Polarized-boson pairs at NLO in the SMEFT

We present a computation of diboson production in the $W^\pm Z$ channel at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), incorporating leptonic decays of the gauge bosons and considering intermediate gauge bosons with definite polarization states. The analysis includes contributions from the Standard Model effective field theory (SMEFT) and is carried out at next-to-leading order accuracy in QCD, matched to a parton-shower simulation. Our implementation allows for the selection of specific helicity configurations, both in the Standard Model and in the presence of dimension-six operators inducing anomalous triple-gauge-boson couplings. This work provides a key ingredient for both polarization-template and quantum-tomography analyses of diboson systems at the LHC within the SMEFT framework.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2025

Precise Standard-Model predictions for polarised Z-boson pair production and decay at the LHC

Providing accurate theoretical predictions in the Standard Model for processes with polarised electroweak bosons is crucial to understand more in-depth the electroweak-symmetry breaking mechanism and to enhance the sensitivity to potential new-physics effects. Motivated by the rapidly increasing number of polarisation analyses of di-boson processes with LHC data, we carry out a comprehensive study of the inclusive production of two polarised Z bosons in the decay channel with four charged leptons. We perform a detailed comparison of fixed-order predictions obtained with various Monte Carlo programs which rely on different signal-definition strategies, assessing non-resonant and interference effects by contrasting polarised results with unpolarised and full off-shell ones. For the first time, we accomplish the combination of NNLO QCD and NLO EW corrections, setting the new state-of-the-art perturbative accuracy for polarised Z-boson pairs at the LHC. The impact of parton-shower matching and multi-jet merging is investigated by scrutinising calculations obtained with event generators that are typically used in experimental analyses. Integrated and differential results are discussed in a realistic fiducial setup and compared to publicly available ATLAS results.

hep-ph↗