arXiv subjects

Marek Schönherr

Publications and source records attributed to Marek Schönherr.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Polarised cross sections for loop-induced processes with SHERPA+RECOLA

Studying vector boson polarisation has become an integral part of the LHC physics programme in recent years, as it provides an independent test of the electroweak symmetry-breaking mechanism and the gauge sector of the electroweak Standard Model. These measurements require polarised templates from parton-shower Monte Carlo simulations. Their accuracy does not yet meet the precision requirements of upcoming measurements, leading to significant modelling uncertainties in experimental analyses that will constrain the LHC's polarisation sensitivity at latest in the HL-LHC phase. Polarised loop-induced processes have so far not been included in most parton-shower event generators, despite contributing significantly to processes of interest. In this work, we present the extension of the polarisation framework in the Monte Carlo event generator SHERPA to polarised loop-induced processes at fixed LO and LO matched to parton shower. In addition to a description of the methodology based on polarised amplitudes from the RECOLA matrix element generator, we discuss polarisation effects in relevant inclusive, loop-induced processes and their jet-associated counterparts, several of them for the first time. Both the influence of different polarisation definitions and of QCD and QED resummation effects are investigated.

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arXiv2026

Drell-Yan lepton pair production from low to high transverse momentum

We present a technique for computing Drell-Yan lepton pair production at particle-level that achieves N$^3$LO and approximate N$^4$LL$'$ accuracy at small to moderate transverse momentum, tree-level precision for $Z+4$, $5$, and $6$ jets, and approximate NLO EW precision at high transverse momentum. A crucial non-perturbative input, the Collins-Soper kernel, is obtained from continuum-limit lattice QCD results. High-precision theory results are recast into strictly positive event weights using an information-theoretic approach based on the maximum entropy principle.

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arXiv2026

An event generator for $h\to b\bar{b}$ decays at NLO in SMEFT matched to a parton shower

We present a Sherpa implementation of NLO corrections in dimension-six Standard Model Effective Field Theory (SMEFT) to the benchmark process $h\to b\bar b$. The calculation includes NLO QCD corrections matched to a parton shower using an MCatNLO-type framework for decays. Virtual weak effects are included as two-body matrix-element corrections in different electroweak input schemes, with the corresponding decay events also evolved with the QCD parton shower. We present numerical results for the inclusive decay rate and for differential distributions in the Higgs-boson rest frame, and illustrate how the decay implementation can be combined with an independently generated production sample by embedding it in associated $Zh$ production at the LHC. This proof-of-principle implementation demonstrates how NLO SMEFT corrections can be incorporated into the widely used Sherpa event generator, providing a basis for extensions to other processes and for SMEFT studies with realistic final states and fiducial cuts within that framework.

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arXiv2026

A resonance-aware MC@NLO QCD+EW-matched calculation of lepton-pair production

As we approach HL-LHC, there is a growing need for increased precision in theoretical predictions so that meaningful comparisons with experimental data can be made. It is no longer sufficient to include only QCD higher-order corrections, with EW effects becoming increasingly important. Even at hadron colliders, QED radiation provides large corrections to some observables. In this paper, we present the first automated matching of NLO QCD+EW to an interleaved QCD+QED parton shower using the MC@NLO matching method in the Catani-Seymour dipole formalism. When considering such a matched parton shower, the presence of resonances can lead to spurious higher order terms, originating in the recoil assignment, within the standard dipole construction. We therefore develop a resonance-aware modification to the MC@NLO algorithm that can be applied to QCD- and QED-singlet resonances. We validate our interleaved matching and its resonance-aware modification against fixed-order NLO QCD+EW and pure MC@NLO QCD combined with YFS resummation. Finally, we present resonance-aware MC@NLO QCD+EW predictions for Drell-Yan lepton pair production, a vital precision process at hadron colliders.

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arXiv2026

$e^+e^- \to ZH$ at NLO EW matched to a QED parton shower

To prepare for the next generation particle collider, likely to be a high-energy precision-frontier electron-positron machine, theoretical predictions must improve in tandem. One aspect in which it is necessary to build on the progress made at LEP and at low-energy $e^+e^-$ colliders is in the modelling of initial-state QED radiation from leptons. In this paper we combine the MC@NLO parton shower matching method with QED resummation methods such as the electron structure function to obtain an automated, process-independent NLO-matched QED parton shower. The case of an electron-positron collider provides a particular challenge to the method due to the integrable singularity present in the lepton structure function, at variance with QCD PDFs. We develop new methods to allow a standard dipole parton shower to operate in the presence of this singularity. We validate the method by examining its dependence on infrared parameters and by verifying both the NLO-correctness, and the resummation properties, of the MC@NLO prediction. Finally, we present results for the case of Higgs production in association with an on-shell $Z$ boson at two proposed FCC-ee energies, the first such predictions at EW NLO+PS accuracy.

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arXiv2025

Tri-boson and WH production in the $\mathrm{W}^+\mathrm{W}^+\mathrm{j}\mathrm{j}$ channel: predictions at full NLO accuracy and beyond

In this work, we present the first full NLO predictions for the process $\mathrm{p}\mathrm{p}\toμ^+ν_μ\mathrm{e}^+ν_\mathrm{e}\mathrm{j}\mathrm{j}$ at the LHC in a typical tri-boson phase space. The NLO corrections reach 50% at the level of the fiducial cross section and have a very different hierarchy with respect to vector-boson-scattering phase spaces. By comparing the cross section of the full off-shell process with the sum of contributing on-shell electroweak-boson production subchannels, we find that the process is dominated by WWW and WH production, while vector-boson-scattering topologies still play a non-negligible role. In addition, NLO QCD predictions matched to parton shower which are supplemented by approximate electroweak corrections are provided. For the fiducial cross section, the electroweak corrections turn out to be small but the QCD corrections reach 47%. For the inclusive cross section, matching to parton shower affects the predictions by 7%. However, for differential distributions corrections due to the parton shower can be much more sizeable, depending on the region of phase space.

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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.

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arXiv2024

Event generation with Sherpa 3

Sherpa is a general-purpose Monte Carlo event generator for the simulation of particle collisions in high-energy collider experiments. We summarise new developments, essential features, and ongoing improvements within the Sherpa 3 release series. Physics improvements include higher-order electroweak corrections, simulations of photoproduction and hard diffraction at NLO QCD, heavy-flavour matching in NLO multijet merging, spin-polarised cross section calculations, and a new model of colour reconnections. In addition, the modelling of hadronisation, the underlying event and QED effects in both production and decay has been improved, and the overall event generation efficiency has been enhanced.

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arXiv2023

Polarised cross sections for vector boson production with SHERPA

Measurements of vector boson polarisation in vector boson production processes offer a powerful probe of the electroweak symmetry breaking mechanism, scrutinising the Standard Model and new physics scenarios alike. Since massive vector bosons can only be observed as intermediate particles, polarised cross section templates from simulation are necessary to extract their polarisation from measurable unpolarised distributions. In this work we present an extension of the SHERPA Monte-Carlo event generator allowing the simulation of polarised cross sections for vector boson production processes. Based on the narrow-width approximation, polarised cross sections of all possible polarisation combinations for an arbitrary number of intermediate vector bosons can be simulated in a single simulation run. In addition, it is possible to directly predict the interference between different intermediate polarisation states, and various differing polarisation definitions can be studied simultaneously. Besides the simulation of polarised cross sections at fixed LO and LO+PS accuracy as well as in multijet merged calculations, we also present parton-shower-matched polarised cross sections with approximate NLO QCD corrections in the vector boson production processes. We demonstrate that the differences of this approximation to full NLO QCD predictions are small and it thus opens up the possibility for fully-simulated calculations at the hadron level including polarisation information and higher-order QCD effects for the first time.

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arXiv2023

Projected transverse momentum resummation in top-antitop pair production at LHC

The transverse momentum distribution of the $t\bar{t}$ system is of both experimental and theoretical interest. In the presence of the azimuthally asymmetric divergences, pursuing the resummation at the high logarithmic precision is rather demanding in general. In this paper, we propose the projected transverse momentum spectrum $\mathrm{d}σ_{t\bar{t}}/\mathrm{d} q_τ$, which is derived from the classical $\vec{q}_{\mathrm{T}}$ spectrum by integrating out the rejection component $q_{τ_{\perp}}$ with respect to a reference unit vector $\vecτ$, to serve as an alternative resolution to curb those asymmetric influences, in additional to the azimuthally averaged case $\mathrm{d}σ_{t\bar{t}}/\mathrm{d} |\vec{q}_{\mathrm{T}}|$. In the context of the effective field theories, SCET$_{\mathrm{II}}$ and HQET, we will demonstrate that in spite of the $q_{τ_{\perp}}$ integrations, the leading asymptotic terms of $\mathrm{d}σ_{t\bar{t}}/\mathrm{d} q_τ$ still observe the factorization pattern in terms of the hard, beam, and soft functions in the vicinity of $ q_τ=0$~GeV. With the help of the renormalisation group equation techniques, we evaluate the resummed spectra $\mathrm{d}σ_{t\bar{t}}/\mathrm{d} q_{\mathrm{T,in}}$, $\mathrm{d}σ_{t\bar{t}}/\mathrm{d} q_{\mathrm{T,out}}$, and $\mathrm{d}σ_{t\bar{t}}/\mathrm{d} ΔΦ_{t\bar{t}}$ at NLL+NLO, NNLL+NNLO, and approximate NNLL'+NNLO accuracy. This is the first time the azimuthal spectrum $ΔΦ_{t\bar{t}}$ is appraised at or beyond the NNLL level including a consistent treatment of both beam collinear and soft radiation.

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arXiv2022

A standard convention for particle-level Monte Carlo event-variation weights

Streams of event weights in particle-level Monte Carlo event generators are a convenient and immensely CPU-efficient approach to express systematic uncertainties in phenomenology calculations, providing systematic variations on the nominal prediction within a single event sample. But the lack of a common standard for labelling these variation streams across different tools has proven to be a major limitation for event-processing tools and analysers alike. Here we propose a well-defined, extensible community standard for the naming, ordering, and interpretation of weight streams that will serve as the basis for semantically correct parsing and combination of such variations in both theoretical and experimental studies.

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arXiv2022

Accelerating LHC event generation with simplified pilot runs and fast PDFs

Poor computing efficiency of precision event generators for LHC physics has become a bottleneck for Monte-Carlo event simulation campaigns. We provide solutions to this problem by focusing on two major components of general-purpose event generators: The PDF evaluator and the matrix-element generator. For a typical production setup in the ATLAS experiment, we show that the two can consume about 80% of the total runtime. Using NLO simulations of $pp\to\ell^+\ell^-+\text{jets}$ and $pp\to t\bar{t}+\text{jets}$ as an example, we demonstrate that the computing footprint of LHAPDF and Sherpa can be reduced by factors of order 10, while maintaining the formal accuracy of the event sample. The improved codes are made publicly available.

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arXiv2022

YFS Resummation for Future Lepton-Lepton Colliders in SHERPA

We present an implementation of the Yennie--\-Frautschi--\-Suura (YFS) scheme for the all-orders resummation of logarithms from the emission of soft real and virtual photons in processes that are critical for future lepton colliders. They include, in particular, $e^-e^+\to f\bar{f}$ and $e^-e^+\to W^-W^+$, where we validate the results of our implementation, improved with fixed-order corrections, with those obtained from the most precise calculations. We also show, for the first time, results for the Higgs-Strahlungs process, $e^-e^+\to ZH$, in YFS resummation including fixed-order improvements up to order $α^3L^3$.

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arXiv2022

Precise predictions for V+2 jet backgrounds in searches for invisible Higgs decays

We present next-to-leading order QCD and electroweak (EW) theory predictions for $V+2\,$jet production, with $V=Z,W^{\pm}$, considering both the QCD and EW production modes and their interference. We focus on phase-space regions where $V+2\,$jet production is dominated by vector-boson fusion, and where these processes yield the dominant irreducible backgrounds in searches for invisible Higgs boson decays. Predictions at parton level are provided together with detailed prescriptions for their implementation in experimental analyses based on the reweighting of Monte Carlo samples. The key idea is that, exploiting accurate data for $W+2\,$jet production in combination with a theory-driven extrapolation to the $Z+2\,$jet process can lead to a determination of the irreducible background at the few-percent level. Particular attention is devoted to the estimate of the residual theoretical uncertainties due to unknown higher-order QCD and EW effects and their correlation between the different $V+2\,$jet processes, which is key to improve the sensitivity to invisible Higgs decays.

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arXiv2021

Higher-order EW corrections in ZZ and ZZj production at the LHC

We consider the production of a pair of $Z$ bosons at the LHC and study the inclusion of EW corrections in theoretical predictions at fixed order and based on multijet-merged parton-shower simulations. To this end we present exact NLO EW results for $pp\to e^+e^-μ^+μ^-$, and, for the first time, for $pp\to e^+e^-μ^+μ^-j$, and compare them to the EW virtual and NLL Sudakov approximation. We then match the exact NLO EW result to the resummed Sudakov logarithms to achieve an improved NLO EW + NLL $\text{EW}_\text{sud}^\text{exp}$ result. Further, we discuss the inclusion of the above EW corrections in MEPS@NLO event simulations in the framework of the Sherpa event generator. We present detailed phenomenological predictions for inclusive $ZZ$ and $ZZj$ production taking into account the dominant EW corrections through the EW virtual approximation, as well as through (exponentiated) EW Sudakov logarithms.

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arXiv2021

The $q_T$ and $Δϕ$ spectra in W and Z production at the LHC at N$^3$LL'+N$^2$LO

The production of weak gauge bosons, $W^{\pm}$ and $Z$, are at the core of the LHC precision measurement program. Their transverse momentum spectra as well as their pairwise ratios are key theoretical inputs to many high-precision analyses, ranging from the $W$ mass measurement to the determination of parton distribution functions. Owing to the different properties of the $W$ and $Z$ boson and the different accessible fiducial regions for their measurement, a simple one-dimensional correlation is insufficient to capture the differing vector and axial-vector dynamics of the produced lepton pair. We propose to correlate them in two observables, the transverse momentum $q_T$ of the lepton pair and its azimuthal separation $Δϕ$. Both quantities are purely transverse and therefore accessible in all three processes, either directly or by utilising the missing transverse momentum of the event. We calculate all the single-differential $q_T$ and $Δϕ$ as well as the double-differential $(q_T,Δϕ)$ spectra for all three processes at N$^3$LL'+N$^2$LO accuracy, resumming small transverse momentum logarithms in the soft-collinear effective theory approach and including all singlet and non-singlet contributions. Using the double-differential cross sections we build the pairwise ratios $\mathcal{R}_{W^+/Z},~\mathcal{R}_{W^-/Z},~\mathcal{R}_{W^+/W^-}$ and determine their uncertainties assuming fully correlated, partially correlated, and uncorrelated uncertainties in the respective numerators and denominators. In the preferred partially correlated case we find uncertainties of less than 1% in most phase space regions and up to 3% in the lowest $q_T$ region.

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arXiv2021

Four lepton production and the accuracy of QED FSR

We scrutinise the ability of the primary QED final-state resummation tools, combined with electroweak virtual corrections, to reproduce the exact next-to-leading order electroweak calculation in the four-charged-lepton final state. We further examine the dependence of the findings on the lepton-photon dressing-cone size as well as the resonance identification strategy. Overall we find excellent agreement with the fixed-order result, but partial differences not directly connected with resummation-induced higher-order effects at the few-percent level are observed in some cases, which are relevant for precision measurements.

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arXiv2021

Constraining CP violating operators in charged and neutral triple gauge couplings

We constrain $C\!P$-violating charged and neutral anomalous triple gauge couplings using LHC measurements and projections of diboson and VBF $Vjj$ production, both with subsequent leptonic decays. For triple gauge couplings involving $W$ bosons we analyse asymmetries and interpret our results in the SMEFT at dimension-six. For neutral triple gauge couplings, which are dominantly constrained by high transverse-momentum bins, we present the resulting bounds in terms of a general anomalous couplings framework.

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