arXiv subjects

Rikkert Frederix

Publications and source records attributed to Rikkert Frederix.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2021

Probing the spin correlations of $t\bar t $ production at NLO QCD+EW

In this work we investigate the NLO QCD+EW corrections to the top quark pair production and their effects on the spin correlation coefficients and asymmetries at fixed-order top quark pair production and LO decay in the dilepton channel, within the narrow-width approximation. The spin correlations are implicitly measured through the lepton kinematics. Moreover we study the EW effects to the leptonic differential distributions. We find that the EW corrections to the $t \bar t$ production are within the NLO QCD theoretical uncertainties for the spin correlation coefficients and the leptonic asymmetries. On the other hand, for the differential distributions we find that the EW corrections exceed the NLO QCD scale uncertainty band in the high rapidity regimes and are of the order of the NLO QCD scale uncertainty in the case of invariant mass and transverse momentum distributions.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2021

On improving NLO merging for $t \bar t W$ production

We introduce an improvement to the FxFx matrix element merging procedure for $pp\to t \bar t W$ production at NLO in QCD with one and/or two additional jets. The main modification is an improved treatment of jets that are not logarithmically enhanced in the low transverse-momentum regime. We provide predictions for the inclusive cross section and the $t \bar t W$ differential distributions including parton-shower effects. Taking also the NLO EW corrections into account, this results in the most-accurate predictions for this process to date. We further proceed to include the on-shell LO decays of the $t \bar t W$ including the tree-level spin correlations within the narrow-width approximation, focusing on the multi-lepton signatures studied at the LHC. We find a $\sim\!\!30\%$ increase over the NLO QCD prediction and large non-flat $K$-factors to differential distributions.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2021

Challenges in Monte Carlo event generator software for High-Luminosity LHC

We review the main software and computing challenges for the Monte Carlo physics event generators used by the LHC experiments, in view of the High-Luminosity LHC (HL-LHC) physics programme. This paper has been prepared by the HEP Software Foundation (HSF) Physics Event Generator Working Group as an input to the LHCC review of HL-LHC computing, which has started in May 2020.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2020

Electroweak corrections to the angular coefficients in finite-$p_T$ $Z$-boson production and dilepton decay

We present next-to-leading order (NLO) electroweak corrections to the dominant five angular coefficients parametrizing the Drell-Yan process in the $Z$-boson mass peak range for finite-$p_T$ vector boson production. The results are presented differentially in the vector boson transverse momentum. The Lam-Tung violating difference $A_0-A_2$ is examined alongside the coefficients. A single lepton transverse momentum cut is needed in the case of electroweak corrections to avoid a double singularity in the photon induced diagrams, and the dependence on the value of this cut is examined. We compare the electroweak corrections to the angular coefficients to the NLO QCD corrections, including the single lepton cut. The size of the single lepton cut is found to affect the two coefficients $A_0$ and $A_2$ to largest extent. The relative size of the electroweak corrections to the coefficients is moderate for all single lepton cut values, and by extrapolation to the inclusive results, is moderate also for the full dilepton phase space case. However, for the Lam-Tung violation, there is a significant contribution from the electroweak corrections for low $p_T$ of the lepton pair.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2020

HL-LHC Computing Review: Common Tools and Community Software

Common and community software packages, such as ROOT, Geant4 and event generators have been a key part of the LHC's success so far and continued development and optimisation will be critical in the future. The challenges are driven by an ambitious physics programme, notably the LHC accelerator upgrade to high-luminosity, HL-LHC, and the corresponding detector upgrades of ATLAS and CMS. In this document we address the issues for software that is used in multiple experiments (usually even more widely than ATLAS and CMS) and maintained by teams of developers who are either not linked to a particular experiment or who contribute to common software within the context of their experiment activity. We also give space to general considerations for future software and projects that tackle upcoming challenges, no matter who writes it, which is an area where community convergence on best practice is extremely useful.

physics.comp-ph↗

arXiv2020

Subleading EW corrections and spin-correlation effects in $t\bar{t}W$ multi-lepton signatures

Recently a slight tension between data and predictions has been reported in $t\bar{t}W$ production by both the CMS and ATLAS collaborations. We revisit the theoretical predictions for this process, focussing on the following two effects. We disentangle various effects that lead to asymmetries among the leptonic decay products of the (anti-)top quarks and $W$ bosons, for which we find that the spin correlations in the top-quark pair are the dominant source. We also discuss the impact of the large, formally subleading, electroweak corrections to $t\bar{t}W$ production at the LHC. We find that this effect changes the $t\bar{t}W$ cross section significantly in the signature phase-space regions, and should therefore be included differentially in the theory to data comparisons.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2019

Precise predictions for single-top production: the impact of EW corrections and QCD shower on the t-channel signature

In this work we calculate and provide precise predictions for the signature that is typically exploited at the LHC for the measurement of t-channel single-top production: 1 lepton, 1 light jet, 1 b-jet, missing-ET and no additional jets or leptons. We apply the cuts that define the fiducial region and we take into account all the contributions to this signature; not only those from resonant t-channel single-top production. On the one hand, we calculate the complete-NLO corrections, i.e., all NLO effects of QCD and EW origin. On the other hand, we study in detail the impact of a QCD parton shower for the fiducial region we consider. We provide predictions in different approximations at the inclusive level and for several differential distributions. Our study demonstrates the relevance of both EW corrections and shower effects for obtaining precise and reliable theoretical predictions for the single-top-production fiducial region.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2019

Top-quark pair hadroproduction in association with a heavy boson at NLO+NNLL including EW corrections

This work studies the associated production of a top-quark pair with a $W$, $Z$, or Higgs boson at the LHC. Predictions for the total cross sections as well as for several differential distributions of the massive particles in the final state are provided. These predictions, valid for the LHC operating at $13$ TeV, include without any approximation all the NLO electroweak and QCD contributions of $\mathcal{O}(α_s^{i} α^{j+1})$ with $i+j=2,3$. In addition, the predictions presented here improve upon the NLO QCD results by adding the effects of soft gluon emission corrections resummed to next-to-next-to-leading logarithmic accuracy. The residual dependence of the predictions on scale and PDF choices is analyzed.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2019

Accurate predictions for t-channel single top-quark production

Single top-quark production through the exchange of a t-channel W-boson is the main electroweak production mode for top quarks at the Large Hadron Collider. I discuss a recent development in the theoretical predictions for this process, in which t-channel single-top with an additional jet is combined, at NLO accuracy, with t-channel single top production, without the introduction of a merging scale.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2018

MINLO t-channel single-top plus jet

We present a next-to-leading order accurate simulation of t-channel single-top plus jet production matched to parton showers via the POWHEG method. The calculation underlying the simulation is enhanced with a process-specific implementation of the multi-scale improved NLO (MINLO) method, such that it gives physical predictions all through phase space, including regions where the jet additional to the t-channel single-top process is unresolved. We further describe a tuning procedure for the MINLO Sudakov form factor, fitting the coefficient of the first subleading term in its exponent using an artificial neural-network. The latter tuning, implemented as a straightforward event-by-event reweighting, renders the MINLO simulation NLO accurate for t-channel single-top observables, in addition to those of the analogous single-top plus jet process.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2018

Large NLO corrections in $t\bar{t}W^{\pm}$ and $t\bar{t}t\bar{t}$ hadroproduction from supposedly subleading EW contributions

We calculate the complete-NLO predictions for $t\bar{t}W^{\pm}$ and $t\bar{t}t\bar{t}$ production in proton--proton collisions at 13 and 100 TeV. All the non-vanishing contributions of $\mathcal{O}(α_s^i α^j)$ with $i+j=3,4$ for $t\bar{t}W^{\pm}$ and $i+j=4,5$ for $t\bar{t}t\bar{t}$ are evaluated without any approximation. For $t\bar{t}W^{\pm}$ we find that, due to the presence of $tW \to tW$ scattering, at 13(100) TeV the $\mathcal{O}(α_s α^3)$ contribution is about 12(70)\% of the LO, i.e., it is larger than the so-called NLO EW corrections (the $\mathcal{O}(α_s^2 α^2)$ terms) and has opposite sign. In the case of $t\bar{t}t\bar{t}$ production, large contributions from electroweak $tt \to tt$ scattering are already present at LO in the $\mathcal{O}(α_s^3 α)$ and $\mathcal{O}(α_s^2 α^2)$ terms. For the same reason we find that both NLO terms of $\mathcal{O}(α_s^4 α)$, i.e., the NLO EW corrections, and $\mathcal{O}(α_s^3 α^2)$ are large ($\pm 15 \%$ of the LO) and their relative contributions strongly depend on the values of the renormalisation and factorisation scales. However, large accidental cancellations are present (away from the threshold region) between these two contributions. Moreover, the NLO corrections strongly depend on the kinematics and are particularly large at the threshold, where even the relative contribution from $\mathcal{O}(α_s^2 α^3)$ terms amounts to tens of percents.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2017

Spin Polarisation of $t\bar{t}γγ$ production at NLO+PS with GoSam interfaced to MadGraph5_aMC@NLO

We present an interface between the multipurpose NLO Monte Carlo tool MadGraph5_aMC@NLO and the automated one-loop amplitude generator GoSam. As a first application of this novel framework, we compute the NLO corrections to $pp \to t\bar{t}H$ and $pp \to t\bar{t}γγ$ matched to a parton shower. In the phenomenological analyses of these processes, we focus our attention on observables which are sensitive to the polarisation of the top quarks.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2017

Accurate predictions for charged Higgs production: closing the $m_{H^{\pm}}\sim m_t$ window

We present predictions for the total cross section for the production of a charged Higgs boson in the intermediate-mass range ($m_{H^{\pm}}\sim m_t$) at the LHC, focusing on a type-II two-Higgs-doublet model. Results are obtained at next-to-leading order (NLO) accuracy in QCD perturbation theory, by studying the full process $pp\to H^\pm W^\mp b \bar b$ in the complex-(top)-mass scheme with massive bottom quarks. Compared to lowest-order predictions, NLO corrections have a sizeable impact: they increase the cross section by roughly 50\% and reduce uncertainties due to scale variations by more than a factor of two. Our computation reliably interpolates between the low- and high-mass regime. Our results provide the first NLO prediction for charged Higgs production in the intermediate-mass range and therefore allow to have NLO accurate predictions in the full $m_{H^{\pm}}$ range. The extension of our results to different realisations of the two-Higgs-doublet model or to the supersymmetric case is also discussed.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2017

The complete NLO corrections to dijet hadroproduction

We study the production of jets in hadronic collisions, by computing all contributions proportional to $α_S^nα^m$, with $n+m=2$ and $n+m=3$. These correspond to leading and next-to-leading order results, respectively, for single-inclusive and dijet observables in a perturbative expansion that includes both QCD and electroweak effects. We discuss issues relevant to the definition of hadronic jets in the context of electroweak corrections, and present sample phenomenological predictions for the 13-TeV LHC. We find that both the leading and next-to-leading order contributions largely respect the relative hierarchy established by the respective coupling-constant combinations.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2016

Heavy-quark mass effects in Higgs plus jets production

We study the production of a Standard Model Higgs boson in the gluon-fusion channel at the 13 TeV LHC. Our results are accurate to the next-to-leading order in QCD, bar for the lack of some two-loop amplitudes, for up to two extra jets and are matched to the PYTHIA8 Monte Carlo. We address the impact, at the level of inclusive rates and of differential distributions, of the merging of samples characterised by different final-state multiplicities, and of the effects induced by top and bottom masses through heavy-quark loop diagrams. We find that both the merging and the heavy-quark masses must be included in the calculation in order to realistically predict observables of experimental interest.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2016

Extending the MINLO method

We consider improving POWHEG+MINLO simulations, so as to also render them NLO accurate in the description of observables receiving contributions from events with lower parton multiplicity than present in their underlying NLO calculation. On a conceptual level we follow the strategy of the so-called MINLO' programs. Whereas the existing MINLO' framework requires explicit analytic input from higher order resummation, here we derive an effective numerical approximation to these ingredients, by imposing unitarity. This offers a way of extending the MINLO' method to more complex processes, complementary to the known route which uses explicit computations of high-accuracy resummation inputs. Specifically, we have focused on Higgs-plus-two-jet production (HJJ) and related processes. We also consider how one can cover three units of multiplicity at NLO accuracy, i.e. we consider how the HJJ-MINLO simulation may yield NLO accuracy for inclusive H, HJ, and HJJ quantities. We perform a feasibility study assessing the potential of these ideas.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2016

Off-shell single-top production at NLO matched to parton showers

We study the hadroproduction of a $Wb$ pair in association with a light jet, focusing on the dominant $t$-channel contribution and including exactly at the matrix-element level all non-resonant and off-shell effects induced by the finite top-quark width. Our simulations are accurate to the next-to-leading order in QCD, and are matched to the HERWIG6 and PYTHIA8 parton showers through the MC@NLO method. We present phenomenological results relevant to the 8 TeV LHC, and carry out a thorough comparison to the case of on-shell $t$-channel single-top production. We formulate our approach so that it can be applied to the general case of matrix elements that feature coloured intermediate resonances and are matched to parton showers.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2016

A study of multi-jet production in association with an electroweak vector boson

We consider the production of a single $Z$ or $W$ boson in association with jets at the LHC. We compute the corresponding cross sections by matching NLO QCD predictions with the Herwig++ and Pythia8 parton showers, and by merging all of the underlying matrix elements with up to two light partons at the Born level. We compare our results with several 7-TeV measurements by the ATLAS and CMS collaborations, and overall we find a good agreement between theory and data.

hep-ph↗