arXiv subjects
Publications and source records attributed to M. Jaquier.
The antenna subtraction method for NNLO QCD calculations is implemented in the NNLOJET parton-level event generator code to compute jet cross sections and related observables in electron-positron, lepton-hadron and hadron-hadron collisions. We describe the open-source NNLOJET code and its usage.
We present the analytic form of the two-loop four-graviton scattering amplitudes in Einstein gravity. To remove ultraviolet divergences we include counterterms quadratic and cubic in the Riemann curvature tensor. The two-loop numerical unitarity approach is used to deal with the challenging momentum dependence of the interactions. We exploit the algebraic properties of the integrand of the amplitude in order to map it to a minimal basis of Feynman integrals. Analytic expressions are obtained from numerical evaluations of the amplitude. Finally, we show that four-graviton scattering observables depend on fewer couplings than naively expected.
We describe the unitarity approach for the numerical computation of two-loop integral coefficients of scattering amplitudes. It is well known that the leading propagator singularities of an amplitude's integrand are related to products of tree amplitudes. At two loops, Feynman diagrams with doubled propagators appear naturally, which lead to subleading pole contributions. In general, it is not known how these contributions can be directly expressed in terms of a product of on-shell tree amplitudes. We present a universal algorithm to extract these subleading pole terms by releasing some of the on-shell conditions. We demonstrate the new approach by numerically computing two-loop four-gluon integral coefficients.
We present the first numerical computation of two-loop amplitudes based on the unitarity method. As a proof of principle, we compute the four-gluon process. We discuss the new method, analyze its numerical properties and apply it to reconstruct the analytic form of the amplitudes. The numerical method is universal, and can be automated to provide multi-scale two-loop computations for phenomenologically relevant signatures at hadron colliders.
We derive the second-order QCD corrections to the production of a Higgs boson recoiling against a parton with finite transverse momentum, working in the effective field theory in which the top quark contributions are integrated out. To account for quark mass effects, we supplement the effective field theory result by the full quark mass dependence at leading order. Our calculation is fully differential in the final state kinematics and includes the decay of the Higgs boson to a photon pair. It allows one to make next-to-next-to- leading order (NNLO)-accurate theory predictions for Higgs-plus-jet final states and for the transverse momentum distribution of the Higgs boson, accounting for the experimental definition of the fiducial cross sections. The NNLO QCD corrections are found to be moderate and positive, they lead to a substantial reduction of the theory uncertainty on the predictions. We compare our results to 8 TeV LHC data from ATLAS and CMS. While the shape of the data is well-described for both experiments, we agree on the normalization only for CMS. By normalizing data and theory to the inclusive fiducial cross section for Higgs production, good agreement is found for both experiments, however at the expense of an increased theory uncertainty. We make predictions for Higgs production observables at the 13 TeV LHC, which are in good agreement with recent ATLAS data. At this energy, the leading order mass corrections to the effective field theory prediction become significant at large transverse momenta, and we discuss the resulting uncertainties on the predictions.
We compute the cross section and differential distributions for the production of a Standard Model Higgs boson in association with a hadronic jet to next-to-next-to-leading order in quantum chromodynamics (QCD). In Higgs boson studies at the LHC, final states containing one jet are a dominant contribution to the total event rate, and their understanding is crucial for improved determinations of the Higgs boson properties. We observe substantial higher order corrections to transverse momentum spectra and rapidity distributions in Higgs-plus-one-jet final states. Their inclusion stabilises the residual theoretical uncertainty of the predictions around 9\%, thereby providing important input to precision studies of the Higgs boson.
Many search strategies for the Standard Model Higgs boson apply specific selection criteria on hadronic jets observed in association with the Higgs boson decay products, either in the form of a jet veto, or by defining event samples according to jet multiplicity. To improve the theoretical description of Higgs-boson-plus-jet production (and the closely related Higgs boson transverse momentum distribution), we derive the two-loop QCD corrections to the helicity amplitudes for the processes $H \to ggg$ and $H\to q \bar q g$ in an effective theory with infinite top quark mass. The helicity amplitudes are extracted from the coefficients appearing in the general tensorial structure for each process. The coefficients are derived from the Feynman graph amplitudes by means of projectors within the conventional dimensional regularization scheme. The infrared pole structure of our result agrees with the expectation from infrared factorization and the finite parts of the amplitudes are expressed in terms of one- and two-dimensional harmonic polylogarithms.
We study the moments of hadronic event shapes in $e^+e^-$ annihilation within the context of next-to-next-to-leading order (NNLO) perturbative QCD predictions combined with non-perturbative power corrections in the dispersive model. This model is extended to match upon the NNLO perturbative prediction. The resulting theoretical expression has been compared to experimental data from JADE and OPAL, and a new value for $α_s(M_Z)$ has been determined, as well as of the average coupling $α_0$ in the non-perturbative region below $μ_I=2$ GeV within the dispersive model: α_s(M_Z)&=0.1153\pm0.0017(\mathrm{exp})\pm0.0023(\mathrm{th}),α_0&=0.5132\pm0.0115(\mathrm{exp})\pm0.0381(\mathrm{th}), The precision of the $α_s(M_Z)$ value has been improved in comparison to the previously available next-to-leading order analysis. We observe that the resulting power corrections are considerably larger than those estimated from hadronization models in multi-purpose event generator programs.
This report summarizes the activities of the SM and NLO Multileg Working Group of the Workshop "Physics at TeV Colliders", Les Houches, France 8-26 June, 2009.