arXiv subjects

M. Kerner

Publications and source records attributed to M. Kerner.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2023

Numerical Scattering Amplitudes with pySecDec

We present a major update of the program pySecDec, a toolbox for the evaluation of dimensionally regulated parameter integrals. The new version enables the evaluation of multi-loop integrals as well as amplitudes in a highly distributed and flexible way, optionally on GPUs. The program has been optimised and runs up to an order of magnitude faster than the previous release. A new integration procedure that utilises construction-free median Quasi-Monte Carlo rules is implemented. The median lattice rules can outperform our previous component-by-component rules by a factor of 5 and remove the limitation on the maximum number of sampling points. The expansion by regions procedures have been extended to support Feynman integrals with numerators, and functions for automatically determining when and how analytic regulators should be introduced are now available. The new features and performance are illustrated with several examples.

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arXiv2022

Event Generators for High-Energy Physics Experiments

We provide an overview of the status of Monte-Carlo event generators for high-energy particle physics. Guided by the experimental needs and requirements, we highlight areas of active development, and opportunities for future improvements. Particular emphasis is given to physics models and algorithms that are employed across a variety of experiments. These common themes in event generator development lead to a more comprehensive understanding of physics at the highest energies and intensities, and allow models to be tested against a wealth of data that have been accumulated over the past decades. A cohesive approach to event generator development will allow these models to be further improved and systematic uncertainties to be reduced, directly contributing to future experimental success. Event generators are part of a much larger ecosystem of computational tools. They typically involve a number of unknown model parameters that must be tuned to experimental data, while maintaining the integrity of the underlying physics models. Making both these data, and the analyses with which they have been obtained accessible to future users is an essential aspect of open science and data preservation. It ensures the consistency of physics models across a variety of experiments.

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arXiv2021

Top-quark mass effects in H+jet and H+2 jets production

We present calculations of Higgs boson production via gluon-gluon fusion in association with one or two additional jets at next-to-leading order in QCD. The calculation of H+jet is exact in the treatment of the top-quark mass, whereas for the H+2 jets calculation the two-loop virtual amplitudes are approximated via a reweighting with leading-order mass effects, while keeping all top-quark mass effects in the real radiation contributions. For H+jet production, this study extends a previous calculation, revealing an error in the previous results. For total and differential cross sections, we present new results and compare the QCD corrections with the infinite top-mass limit, for which we find a strikingly good agreement if all amplitudes are rescaled by the leading-order mass dependence.

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arXiv2021

Expansion by regions with pySecDec

We discuss the technique of expansion by regions from a geometric perspective, and its implementation within pySecDec, a toolbox for the evaluation of dimensionally regulated parameter integrals. The program offers an automated way to perform asymptotic expansions and provides a new mechanism for efficiently evaluating amplitudes, as well as individual integrals. The usage of the new features available within pySecDec is illustrated with several examples.

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arXiv2020

A non-linear EFT description of $gg\to HH$ at NLO interfaced to POWHEG

We present the implementation of Higgs boson pair production in gluon fusion within a non-linear Effective Field Theory framework containing five anomalous couplings for this process. The code, available within the POWHEG-BOX-V2, includes full NLO QCD corrections with massive top quarks. All five couplings can be modified by the user. We show $m_{hh}$ distributions at seven benchmark points provided by an $m_{hh}$ shape analysis at NLO and showered $p_T^{hh}$ distributions resulting from an interface to Pythia-8 and Herwig-7.2.

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arXiv2020

Theory for the FCC-ee : Report on the 11th FCC-ee Workshop

The Future Circular Collider (FCC) at CERN, a proposed 100-km circular facility with several colliders in succession, culminates with a 100 TeV proton-proton collider. It offers a vast new domain of exploration in particle physics, with orders of magnitude advances in terms of Precision, Sensitivity and Energy. The implementation plan foresees, as a first step, an Electroweak Factory electron-positron collider. This high luminosity facility, operating between 90 and 365 GeV centre-of-mass energy, will study the heavy particles of the Standard Model, Z, W, Higgs, and top with unprecedented accuracy. The Electroweak Factory $e^+e^-$ collider constitutes a real challenge to the theory and to precision calculations, triggering the need for the development of new mathematical methods and software tools. A first workshop in 2018 had focused on the first FCC-ee stage, the Tera-Z, and confronted the theoretical status of precision Standard Model calculations on the Z-boson resonance to the experimental demands. The second workshop in January 2019, which is reported here, extended the scope to the next stages, with the production of W-bosons (FCC-ee-W), the Higgs boson (FCC-ee-H) and top quarks (FCC-ee-tt). In particular, the theoretical precision in the determination of the crucial input parameters, alpha_QED, alpha_QCD, M_W, m_t at the level of FCC-ee requirements is thoroughly discussed. The requirements on Standard Model theory calculations were spelled out, so as to meet the demanding accuracy of the FCC-ee experimental potential. The discussion of innovative methods and tools for multi-loop calculations was deepened. Furthermore, phenomenological analyses beyond the Standard Model were discussed, in particular the effective theory approaches. The reports of 2018 and 2019 serve as white papers of the workshop results and subsequent developments.

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arXiv2020

Precise predictions for boosted Higgs production

Inclusive Higgs boson production at large transverse momentum is induced by different production channels. We focus on the leading production through gluon fusion, and perform a consistent combination of the state of the art calculations obtained in the infinite-top-mass effective theory at next-to-next-to-leading order (NNLO) and in the full Standard Model (SM) at next-to-leading order (NLO). We thus present approximate QCD predictions for this process at NNLO, and a study of the corresponding perturbative uncertainties. This calculation is then compared with those obtained with commonly used event generators, and we observe that the description of the considered kinematic regime provided by these tools is in good agreement with state of the art calculations. Finally, we present accurate predictions for other production channels such as vector boson fusion, and associated production with a gauge boson, and with a $t\bar{t}$ pair. We find that, at large transverse momentum, the contribution of other production modes is substantial, and therefore must be included for a precise theory prediction of this observable.

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arXiv2019

Higgs boson potential at colliders: status and perspectives

This document summarises the current theoretical and experimental status of the di-Higgs boson production searches, and of the direct and indirect constraints on the Higgs boson self-coupling, with the wish to serve as a useful guide for the next years. The document discusses the theoretical status, including state-of-the-art predictions for di-Higgs cross sections, developments on the effective field theory approach, and studies on specific new physics scenarios that can show up in the di-Higgs final state. The status of di-Higgs searches and the direct and indirect constraints on the Higgs self-coupling at the LHC are presented, with an overview of the relevant experimental techniques, and covering all the variety of relevant signatures. Finally, the capabilities of future colliders in determining the Higgs self-coupling are addressed, comparing the projected precision that can be obtained in such facilities. The work has started as the proceedings of the Di-Higgs workshop at Colliders, held at Fermilab from the 4th to the 9th of September 2018, but it went beyond the topics discussed at that workshop and included further developments.

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arXiv2019

A GPU compatible quasi-Monte Carlo integrator interfaced to pySecDec

The purely numerical evaluation of multi-loop integrals and amplitudes can be a viable alternative to analytic approaches, in particular in the presence of several mass scales, provided sufficient accuracy can be achieved in an acceptable amount of time. For many multi-loop integrals, the fraction of time required to perform the numerical integration is significant and it is therefore beneficial to have efficient and well-implemented numerical integration methods. With this goal in mind, we present a new stand-alone integrator based on the use of (quasi-Monte Carlo) rank-1 shifted lattice rules. For integrals with high variance we also implement a variance reduction algorithm based on fitting a smooth function to the inverse cumulative distribution function of the integrand dimension-by-dimension. Additionally, the new integrator is interfaced to pySecDec to allow the straightforward evaluation of multi-loop integrals and dimensionally regulated parameter integrals. In order to make use of recent advances in parallel computing hardware, our integrator can be used both on CPUs and CUDA compatible GPUs where available.

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arXiv2019

Probing the trilinear Higgs boson coupling in di-Higgs production at NLO QCD including parton shower effects

We present results for Higgs boson pair production with variations of the trilinear Higgs boson self-coupling at next-to-leading order (NLO) in QCD including the full top quark mass dependence. Differential results at 14 TeV are presented, and we discuss the implications of anomalous trilinear couplings as well as differences between the PYTHIA 8.2 and HERWIG 7.1 parton showers in combination with POWHEG. The implementation of the NLO QCD calculation with variable Higgs boson self-coupling is made publicly available in the POWHEG-BOX-V2 Monte Carlo framework. A simple method for using the new implementation to study also variations of the top quark Yukawa coupling is described.

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arXiv2018

NNLO predictions for Z-boson pair production at the LHC

We present a calculation of the NNLO QCD corrections to Z-boson pair production at hadron colliders, based on the N-jettiness method for the real radiation parts. We discuss the size and shape of the perturbative corrections along with their associated scale uncertainties and compare our results to recent LHC data at $\sqrt{s}=13$ TeV.

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arXiv2018

Les Houches 2017: Physics at TeV Colliders Standard Model Working Group Report

This Report summarizes the proceedings of the 2017 Les Houches workshop on Physics at TeV Colliders. Session 1 dealt with (I) new developments relevant for high precision Standard Model calculations, (II) theoretical uncertainties and dataset dependence of parton distribution functions, (III) new developments in jet substructure techniques, (IV) issues in the theoretical description of the production of Standard Model Higgs bosons and how to relate experimental measurements, (V) phenomenological studies essential for comparing LHC data from Run II with theoretical predictions and projections for future measurements, and (VI) new developments in Monte Carlo event generators.

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arXiv2018

NLO QCD corrections to Higgs boson plus jet production with full top-quark mass dependence

We present the next-to-leading order QCD corrections to the production of a Higgs boson in association with one jet at the LHC including the full top-quark mass dependence. The mass of the bottom quark is neglected. The two-loop integrals appearing in the virtual contribution are calculated numerically using the method of Sector Decomposition. We study the Higgs boson transverse momentum distribution, focusing on the high $p_{t,\mathrm{H}}$ region, where the top-quark loop is resolved. We find that the next-to-leading order QCD corrections are large but that the ratio of the next-to-leading order to leading order result is similar to that obtained by computing in the limit of large top-quark mass.

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arXiv2017

Numerical evaluation of two-loop integrals with pySecDec

We describe the program pySecDec, which factorises endpoint singularities from multi-dimensional parameter integrals and can serve to calculate integrals occurring in higher order perturbative calculations numerically. We focus on the new features and on frequently asked questions about the usage of the program.

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arXiv2017

NLO predictions for Higgs boson pair production with full top quark mass dependence matched to parton showers

We present the first combination of NLO QCD matrix elements for di-Higgs production, retaining the full top quark mass dependence, with a parton shower. Results are provided within both the POWHEG-BOX and MadGraph5_aMC@NLO Monte Carlo frameworks. We assess in detail the theoretical uncertainties and provide differential results. We find that, as expected, the shower effects are relatively large for observables like the transverse momentum of the Higgs boson pair, which are sensitive to extra radiation. However, these shower effects are still much smaller than the differences between the Born-improved HEFT approximation and the full NLO calculation in the tails of the distributions.

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arXiv2017

pySecDec: a toolbox for the numerical evaluation of multi-scale integrals

We present pySecDec, a new version of the program SecDec, which performs the factorisation of dimensionally regulated poles in parametric integrals, and the subsequent numerical evaluation of the finite coefficients. The algebraic part of the program is now written in the form of python modules, which allow a very flexible usage. The optimization of the C++ code, generated using FORM, is improved, leading to a faster numerical convergence. The new version also creates a library of the integrand functions, such that it can be linked to user-specific codes for the evaluation of matrix elements in a way similar to analytic integral libraries.

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arXiv2017

Loopedia, a Database for Loop Integrals

Loopedia is a new database at loopedia.org for information on Feynman integrals, intended to provide both bibliographic information as well as results made available by the community. Its bibliometry is complementary to that of SPIRES or arXiv in the sense that it admits searching for integrals by graph-theoretical objects, e.g. its topology.

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arXiv2017

Multi-loop calculations: numerical methods and applications

We briefly review numerical methods for calculations beyond one loop and then describe new developments within the method of sector decomposition in more detail. We also discuss applications to two-loop integrals involving several mass scales.

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