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R. Pittau

Publications and source records attributed to R. Pittau.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources
arXiv2010

A proposal for a standard interface between Monte Carlo tools and one-loop programs

Many highly developed Monte Carlo tools for the evaluation of cross sections based on tree matrix elements exist and are used by experimental collaborations in high energy physics. As the evaluation of one-loop matrix elements has recently been undergoing enormous progress, the combination of one-loop matrix elements with existing Monte Carlo tools is on the horizon. This would lead to phenomenological predictions at the next-to-leading order level. This note summarises the discussion of the next-to-leading order multi-leg (NLM) working group on this issue which has been taking place during the workshop on Physics at TeV colliders at Les Houches, France, in June 2009. The result is a proposal for a standard interface between Monte Carlo tools and one-loop matrix element programs.

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arXiv2009

Combined analysis of Z' -> t tbar and Z' -> t tbar j production for vector resonance searches at LHC

We have implemented a code for Z' + n jets production in ALPGEN, with Z' decays into several final states, including l+ l- and t tbar. The MLM prescription is used for matching the matrix element with the parton shower, including in this way the leading soft and collinear corrections. In order to demonstrate its capabilities, we perform a combined analysis of Z' -> t tbar and Z' -> t tbar j production for a heavy leptophobic gauge boson. It is found that the effect of the extra jet cannot only be accounted for by a K factor multiplying the leading-order cross section. In fact, the combined analysis for Z' -> t tbar and Z' -> t tbar j presented improves the statistical significance of the signal by 25% (8.55 sigma versus 6.77 sigma for a Z' mass of 1 TeV), compared with the results of an inclusive analysis carried out on the same sample of t tbar + t tbar j events.

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arXiv2009

Assault on the NLO Wishlist: pp -> tt bb

We present the results of a next-to-leading order calculation of QCD corrections to the production of an on-shell top-anti-top quark pair in association with two flavored b-jets. Besides studying the total cross section and its scale dependence, we give several differential distributions. Where comparable, our results agree with a previous analysis. While the process under scrutiny is of major relevance for Higgs boson searches at the LHC, we use it to demonstrate the ability of our system built around Helac-Phegas to tackle complete calculations at the frontier of current studies for the LHC. On the technical side, we show how the virtual corrections are efficiently computed with Helac-1Loop, based on the OPP method and the reduction code CutTools, using reweighting and Monte Carlo over color configurations and polarizations. As far as the real corrections are concerned, we use the recently published Helac-Dipoles package. In connection with improvements of the latter, we give the last missing integrated dipole formulae necessary for a complete implementation of phase space restriction dependence in the massive dipole subtraction formalism.

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arXiv2009

Feynman Rules for the Rational Part of the QCD 1-loop amplitudes

We compute the complete set of Feynman Rules producing the Rational Terms of kind R_2 needed to perform any QCD 1-loop calculation. We also explicitly check that in order to account for the entire R_2 contribution, even in case of processes with more than four external legs, only up to four-point vertices are needed. Our results are expressed both in the 't Hooft Veltman regularization scheme and in the Four Dimensional Helicity scheme, using explicit color configurations as well as the color connection language.

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arXiv2008

NLO QCD corrections to tri-boson production

We present a calculation of the NLO QCD corrections for the production of three vector bosons at the LHC, namely Z Z Z, W+ W- Z, W+ Z Z, and W+ W- W+ production. The virtual corrections are computed using the recently proposed method of reduction at the integrand level (OPP reduction). Concerning the contributions coming from real emission we used the dipole subtraction to treat the soft and collinear divergences. We find that the QCD corrections for these electroweak processes are in the range between 70 and 100 percent. As such they have to be considered in experimental studies of triple vector boson production at the LHC.

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arXiv2008

Optimizing the Reduction of One-Loop Amplitudes

We present an optimization of the reduction algorithm of one-loop amplitudes in terms of master integrals. It is based on the exploitation of the polynomial structure of the integrand when evaluated at values of the loop-momentum fulfilling multiple cut-conditions, as emerged in the OPP-method. The reconstruction of the polynomials, needed for the complete reduction, is rended very versatile by using a projection-technique based on the Discrete Fourier Transform. The novel implementation is applied in the context of the NLO QCD corrections to u d-bar --> W+ W- W+.

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arXiv2008

Collider aspects of flavour physics at high Q

This review presents flavour related issues in the production and decays of heavy states at LHC, both from the experimental side and from the theoretical side. We review top quark physics and discuss flavour aspects of several extensions of the Standard Model, such as supersymmetry, little Higgs model or models with extra dimensions. This includes discovery aspects as well as measurement of several properties of these heavy states. We also present public available computational tools related to this topic.

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arXiv2007

Vector-Boson Production of Light Higgs Pairs in 2-Higgs Doublet Models

At the Large Hadron Collider, we prove the feasibility to detect pair production of the lightest CP-even Higgs boson $h$ of Type II 2-Higgs Doublet Models through $q q^{(')}\to q q^{(')} {hh}$ (vector-boson fusion). We also show that, through the $hh\to 4b$ decay channel in presence of heavy-flavour tagging, further exploiting forward/backward jet sampling, one has direct access to the $λ_{Hhh}$ triple Higgs coupling -- which constrains the form of the Higgs potential.

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arXiv2007

Heavy neutrino signals at large hadron colliders

We study the LHC discovery potential for heavy Majorana neutrino singlets in the process pp -> W+ -> l+ N -> l+ l+ jj (l=e,mu) plus its charge conjugate. With a fast detector simulation we show that backgrounds involving two like-sign charged leptons are not negligible and, moreover, they cannot be eliminated with simple sequential kinematical cuts. Using a likelihood analysis it is shown that, for heavy neutrinos coupling only to the muon, LHC has 5 sigma sensitivity for masses up to 200 GeV in the final state mu+- mu+- jj. This reduction in sensitivity, compared to previous parton-level estimates, is driven by the ~ 10^2-10^3 times larger background. Limits are also provided for e+- e+- jj and e+- mu+- jj final states, as well as for Tevatron. For heavy Dirac neutrinos the prospects are worse because backgrounds involving two opposite charge leptons are much larger. For this case, we study the observability of the lepton flavour violating signal e+- mu-+ jj. As a by-product of our analysis, heavy neutrino production has been implemented within the ALPGEN framework.

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arXiv2006

Monte Carlo studies of the jet activity in Higgs + 2 jet events

Tree-level studies have shown in the past that kinematical correlations between the two jets in Higgs+2-jet events are direct probes of the Higgs couplings, e.g. of their CP nature. In this paper we explore the impact of higher-order corrections on the azimuthal angle correlation of the two leading jets and on the rapidity distribution of extra jets. Our study includes matrix-element and shower MC effects, for the two leading sources of Higgs plus two jet events at the CERN LHC, namely vector-boson and gluon fusion. We show that the discriminating features present in the previous leading-order matrix element studies survive.

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arXiv2006

A standard format for Les Houches Event Files

A standard file format is proposed to store process and event information, primarily output from parton-level event generators for further use by general-purpose ones. The information content is identical with what was already defined by the Les Houches Accord five years ago, but then in terms of Fortran commonblocks. This information is embedded in a minimal XML-style structure, for clarity and to simplify parsing.

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arXiv2006

Neutrino physics at large colliders

Large colliders are not sensitive to light neutrino masses and character, but they can produce new heavy neutrinos, allowing also for the determination of their Dirac or Majorana nature. We review the discovery limits at the next generation of large colliders.

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arXiv2006

Les Houches Physics at TeV Colliders 2005, Standard Model and Higgs working group: Summary report

This Report summarises the activities of the "SM and Higgs" working group for the Workshop "Physics at TeV Colliders", Les Houches, France, 2-20 May, 2005. On the one hand, we performed a variety of experimental and theoretical studies on standard candles (such as W, Z, and ttbar production), treating them either as proper signals of known physics, or as backgrounds to unknown physics; we also addressed issues relevant to those non-perturbative or semi-perturbative ingredients, such as Parton Density Functions and Underlying Events, whose understanding will be crucial for a proper simulation of the actual events taking place in the detectors. On the other hand, several channels for the production of the Higgs, or involving the Higgs, have been considered in some detail. The report is structured into four main parts. The first one deals with Standard Model physics, except the Higgs. A variety of arguments are treated here, from full simulation of processes constituting a background to Higgs production, to studies of uncertainties due to PDFs and to extrapolations of models for underlying events, from small-$x$ issues to electroweak corrections which may play a role in vector boson physics. The second part of the report treats Higgs physics from the point of view of the signal. In the third part, reviews are presented on the current status of multi-leg, next-to-leading order and of next-to-next-to-leading order QCD computations. Finally, the fourth part deals with the use of Monte Carlos for simulation of LHC physics.

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arXiv2005

QCD corrections to forward-backward charge asymmetries in l- l+ j production at hadron colliders

The large cross sections for gauge boson production at the Fermilab Tevatron and the CERN Large Hadron Collider (LHC) might give a chance to determine the electroweak parameters with high precision. We calculated two different forward-backward charge asymmetries (A^CS_FB and A^j_FB) of lepton pairs in events with a large transverse momentum jet p p (pbar) -> Z, gamma* + j -> e- e+ j at next-to-leading order (NLO), O(alpha_s) corrections, making use of the Monte Carlo programs MCFM and ALPGEN. These observables could provide a new determination of the weak mixing angle sin^2 theta^lept_eff (M_Z^2) with a statistical precision for each lepton flavour of 10^{-3} (7 x 10^{-3}) at LHC (Tevatron). If b jets are identified, a new asymmetry with respect to the b quark (A^b_FB) can also be measured with a statistical precision of 2 x 10^{-3} (4 x 10^{-2}) at LHC (Tevatron). Finally, we comment on the dependence of our results on various sources of uncertainties and compare, in the case of A^b_FB, the exact result with an approximation that might be more suitable when performing a realistic experimental analysis.

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arXiv2005

NLO forward-backward charge asymmetries in p p (p bar p) -> l- l+ jet production at large hadron colliders

We consider the next-to-leading order corrections, O(alpha_s), to forward-backward charge asymmetries for lepton-pair production in association with a large transverse momentum jet at large hadron colliders. We find that the leading order results are essentially confirmed. Although experimentally challenging and in practice with large backgrounds, these observables could provide a new determination of the weak mixing angle sin2 theta^lept_eff (M_Z^2) with a statistical precision for each lepton flavour of ~10^(-3) (7 x 10^{-3}) at LHC (Tevatron), and if b jets are identified, of the b quark Z asymmetry A^b_{FB} with a statistical precision of ~ 2x10^{-3} (4x10{-2}) at LHC (Tevatron).

hep-ph↗
arXiv2005

Higgs boson self-couplings at the LHC as a probe of extended Higgs sectors

A study of two-Higgs-doublet models (2HDM) in the decoupling limit reveals the existence of parameter configurations with a large triple-Higgs self-coupling as the only low-energy trace of the departure from a Standard Model (SM) Higgs sector. This observation encourages attempts to search for double Higgs production at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) even in mass regions which have been shown to be very hard to probe in the context of SM-like Higgs self-couplings. In this document we consider the case of an Intermediate Mass Higgs (IMH) boson, with 120 GeV <= M_H <= 140 GeV, produced in pairs via vector-vector fusion, Higgs-strahlung and associate production with heavy-quarks and decaying into b anti-b pairs. After a detailed signal-to-background analysis, we confirm that the observation of a Higgs-pair signal is very challenging in the framework of the SM, even at the LHC with upgraded luminosity. In contrast, we verify that the sensitivity is sufficient to detect departures from the SM which would escape detection in the measurements of the single-Higgs production channels.

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