arXiv subjects

Marco Bonvini

Publications and source records attributed to Marco Bonvini.

47 records · Page 3Linked to original sources

arXiv2014

Higgs production in gluon fusion beyond NNLO

We construct an approximate expression for the cross section for Higgs production in gluon fusion at next-to-next-to-next-to-leading order (N$^3$LO) in $α_s$ with finite top mass. We argue that an accurate approximation can be constructed by exploiting the analiticity of the Mellin space cross section, and the information on its singularity structure coming from large N (soft gluon, Sudakov) and small N (high energy, BFKL) all order resummations. We support our argument with an explicit comparison of the approximate and the exact expressions up to the highest (NNLO) order at which the latter are available. We find that the approximate N$^3$LO result amounts to a correction of 16% to the NNLO QCD cross section for production of a 125 GeV Higgs at the LHC (8 TeV), larger than previously estimated, and it significantly reduces the scale dependence of the NNLO result.

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arXiv2014

Updated Higgs cross section at approximate N$^3$LO

We update our estimate of the cross section for Higgs production in gluon fusion at next-to-next-to-next-to-leading order (N$^3$LO) in $α_s$ in view of the recent full computation of the result in the soft limit for infinite top mass, which determines a previously unknown constant. We briefly discuss the phenomenological implications. Results are available through the updated version of the ggHiggs code.

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arXiv2013

Signal-background interference effects for $gg \to H \to W^+ W^-$ beyond leading order

We study the effect of QCD corrections to the $gg\to H\to W^+ W^-$ signal-background interference at the LHC for a heavy Higgs boson. We construct a soft-collinear approximation to the NLO and NNLO corrections for the background process, which is exactly known only at LO. We estimate its accuracy by constructing and comparing the same approximation to the exact result for the signal process, which is known up to NNLO, and we conclude that we can describe the signal-background interference to better than ten percent accuracy. We show that our result implies that, in practice, a fairly good approximation to higher-order QCD corrections to the interference may also be obtained by rescaling the known LO result by a K-factor computed using the signal process.

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arXiv2013

An approximate NNNLO cross section for Higgs production in gluon fusion

An approximate expression for the inclusive Higgs production cross section in gluon fusion at NNNLO in QCD with finite top mass is presented. We argue that an accurate approximation can be constructed combining (and improving) the large- and small-z behaviours of the partonic cross section, which are both known to all orders from soft-gluon (Sudakov) and high-energy (BFKL) resummations, respectively. For a 125 GeV Higgs at LHC at 8 TeV, we find an increase of about 6-13% with respect to the NNLO inclusive cross section for the conventional scale μ_R=m_H/2, suggesting that higher order QCD corrections might be underestimated by presently available results. We also find a significant reduction of the scale uncertainty.

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arXiv2013

The scale of soft resummation in SCET vs perturbative QCD

We summarize and extend previous results on the comparison of threshold resummation, performed, using soft-collinear effective theory (SCET), in the Becher-Neubert approach, to the standard perturbative QCD formalism based on factorization and resummation of Mellin moments of partonic cross sections. We show that the logarithmic accuracy of this SCET result can be extended by half a logarithmic order, thereby bringing it in full agreement with the standard QCD result if a suitable choice is made for the soft scale mu_s which characterizes the SCET result. We provide a master formula relating the two approaches for other scale choices. We then show that with the Becher-Neubert scale choice the Landau pole, which in the perturbative QCD approach is usually removed through power- or exponentially suppressed terms, in the SCET approach is removed by logarithmically subleading terms which break factorization. Such terms may become leading for generic choices of parton distributions, and are always leading when resummation is used far enough from the hadronic threshold.

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arXiv2012

Resummation of soft and hard gluon radiation in perturbative QCD

This thesis arises in the context of precision measurements at hadron colliders. The Tevatron and the LHC provide very accurate measurements of many Standard Model processes, such as the production of a lepton pair (Drell-Yan) of high invariant mass. An accurate theoretical prediction of such processes is crucial to be able to distinguish Standard Model physics from possible new physics signals. QCD effects in the computation of the cross-sections at hadron colliders are usually sizable; in particular, in some kinematical regimes they behave in a non-perturbative way. In these cases the resummation of the whole perturbative series is needed for accurate phenomenological predictions. In this thesis the impact of threshold and high-energy resummations for the production of high invariant mass systems (Drell-Yan, Higgs) are studied in detail. In particular, in the threshold case a prescription to deal with the divergent nature of the perturbative series based on Borel summation is presented, and compared with the other prescriptions in the literature. Results for the invariant mass distributions and rapidity distributions are presented. The high-energy resummation formalism is reviewed and improved, and its impact in phenomenological applications at hadron colliders is investigated. In particular, a possible interaction between the two resummation regimes is studied in some detail.

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arXiv2012

The threshold region for Higgs production in gluon fusion

We provide a quantitative determination of the effective partonic kinematics for Higgs production in gluon fusion in terms of the collider energy at the LHC. We use the result to assess, as a function of the Higgs mass, whether the large top mass approximation is adequate and whether Sudakov resummation is advantageous. We argue that our results hold to all perturbative orders. Based on it, we conclude that the full inclusion of finite top mass corrections is likely to be important for accurate phenomenology for a light Higgs with m_H ~ 125 GeV at the LHC with sqrt{s} = 14 TeV.

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arXiv2012

Soft gluon resummation of Drell-Yan rapidity distributions: theory and phenomenology

We examine critically the theoretical underpinnings and phenomenological implications of soft gluon (threshold) resummation of rapidity distributions at a hadron collider, taking Drell-Yan production at the Tevatron and the LHC as a reference test case. First, we show that in perturbative QCD soft gluon resummation is necessary whenever the partonic (rather the hadronic) center-of-mass energy is close enough to threshold, and we provide tools to assess when resummation is relevant for a given process. Then, we compare different prescriptions for handling the divergent nature of the series of resummed perturbative corrections, specifically the minimal and Borel prescriptions. We assess the intrinsic ambiguities of resummed results, both due to the asymptotic nature of their perturbative expansion, and to the treatment of subleading terms. Turning to phenomenology, we introduce a fast and accurate method for the implementation of resummation with the minimal and Borel prescriptions using an expansion on a basis of Chebyshev polynomials. We then present results for W and Z production as well as both high- and low-mass dilepton pairs at the LHC, and show that soft gluon resummation effects are generally comparable in size to NNLO corrections, but sometimes affected by substantial ambiguities.

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arXiv2012

Threshold resummation in SCET vs. perturbative QCD: an analytic comparison

We compare threshold resummation in QCD, as performed using soft-collinear effective theory (SCET), to the standard perturbative QCD formalism based on factorization and resummation of Mellin moments of partonic cross-sections. We consider various forms of the SCET result, which correspond to different choices of the soft scale mu_s that characterizes this approach. We derive a master formula that relates the SCET resummation to the QCD result for any choice of mu_s. We then use it first, to show that if SCET resummation is performed in N-Mellin moment space by suitable choice of mu_s it is equivalent to the standard perturbative approach. Next, we show that if SCET resummation is performed by choosing for mu_s a partonic momentum variable, the perturbative result for partonic resummed cross-sections is again reproduced, but like its standard perturbative counterpart it is beset by divergent behaviour at the endpoint. Finally, using the master formula we show that when mu_s is chosen as a hadronic momentum variable the SCET and standard approach are related through a multiplicative (convolutive) factor, which contains the dependence on the Landau pole and associated divergence. This factor depends on the luminosity in a non-universal way; it lowers by one power of log the accuracy of the resummed result, but it is otherwise subleading if one assumes the luminosity not to contain logarithmically enhanced terms. Therefore, the SCET approach can be turned into a prescription to remove the Landau pole from the perturbative result, but the price to pay for this is the reduction by one logarithmic power of the accuracy at each order and the need to make assumptions on the parton luminosity.

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arXiv2010

Threshold resummation for Drell-Yan production: theory and phenomenology

We present a phenomenological study of Drell-Yan pair production at hadron colliders based on the NNLO fixed order calculation and on NNLL resummation of threshold logarithms. We give an argument to prove that resummation effects are relevant also for values of x=M^2/s far from threshold. We compare different prescriptions for the calculation of resummed quantities, emphasizing the differences coming from subleading terms, which are important when x is small. We present phenomenological predictions for Drell-Yan rapidity distributions at the LHC, we study the ambiguity related to the resummation prescription, and we compare it to that coming from scale variation.

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arXiv2008

Borel resummation of transverse momentum distributions

We present a new prescription for the resummation of contributions due to soft gluon emission to the trasverse momentum distribution of processes such as Drell-Yan production in hadronic collisions. We show that familiar difficulties in obtaining resummed results as a function of transverse momentum starting from impact-parameter space resummation are related to the divergence of the perturbative expansion of the momentum-space result. We construct a resummed expression by Borel resummation of this divergent series, removing the divergence in the Borel inversion through the inclusion of a suitable higher twist term. The ensuing resummation prescription is free of numerical instabilities, is stable upon the inclusion of subleading terms, and the original divergent perturbative series is asymptotic to it. We compare our results to those obtained using alternative prescriptions, and discuss the ambiguities related to the resummation procedure.

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