Supersymmetric Higgs boson pair production: Discovery prospects at hadron colliders

We study the potential of hadron colliders in the search for the pair production of neutral Higgs bosons in the framework of the minimal supersymmetric standard model. We perform a detailed signal and background analysis, working out efficient kinematical cuts for the extraction of the signal. The important role of squark loop contributions to the signal is re-emphasized. If the signal is sufficiently enhanced by these contributions, it could even be observable at the next run of the upgraded Tevatron collider in the near future. At the LHC the pair production of light and heavy Higgs bosons might be detectable simultaneously. Received: 23 February 2000 / Revised version: 18 April 2000 / Published online: 31 August 2000     

NLO electroweak corrections to Higgs boson production at hadron colliders

Results for the complete NLO electroweak corrections to Standard Model Higgs production via gluon fusion are included in the total cross section for hadronic collisions. Artificially large threshold effects are avoided working in the complex-mass scheme. The numerical impact at LHC (Tevatron) energies is explored for Higgs mass values up to 500 GeV (200 GeV). Assuming a complete factorization of the electroweak corrections, one finds a +5% shift with respect to the NNLO QCD cross section for a Higgs mass of 120 GeV both at the LHC and the Tevatron. Adopting two different factorization schemes for the electroweak effects, an estimate of the corresponding total theoretical uncertainty is computed.     

Soft-gluon resummation for pseudoscalar Higgs boson production at hadron colliders

We compute the threshold-resummed cross section for pseudo-scalar MSSM Higgs boson production by gluon fusion at hadron colliders. The calculation is performed at next-to-next-to leading logarithmic accuracy. We present results for both the LHC and Tevatron Run II. We analyze the factorization and renormalization scale dependence of the results, finding that after performing the resummation the corresponding cross section can be computed with an accuracy better than 10%.     

Threshold resummation for gaugino pair production at hadron colliders

We present a complete analysis of threshold resummation effects on direct light and heavy gaugino pair production at the Tevatron and the LHC. Based on a new perturbative calculation at next-to-leading order of SUSY-QCD, which includes also squark mixing effects, we resum soft gluon radiation in the threshold region at leading and next-to-leading logarithmic accuracy, retaining at the same time the full SUSY-QCD corrections in the finite coefficient function. This allows us to correctly match the resummed to the perturbative cross section. Universal subleading logarithms are resummed in full matrix form. We find that threshold resummation slightly increases and considerably stabilizes the invariant mass spectra and total cross sections with respect to the next-to-leading order calculation. For future reference, we present total cross sections and their theoretical errors in tabular form for several commonly used SUSY benchmark points, gaugino pairs, and hadron collider energies.     

Joint resummation for gaugino pair production at hadron colliders

We calculate direct gaugino pair production at hadron colliders at next-to-leading order of perturbative QCD, resumming simultaneously large logarithms in the small transverse-momentum and threshold regions to next-to-leading logarithmic accuracy. Numerical predictions are presented for transverse momentum and invariant mass spectra as well as for total cross sections and compared to results obtained at fixed order and with pure transverse-momentum and threshold resummation. We find that our new results are in general in good agreement with the previous ones, but often even more precise.     

Weak interaction effects in top-quark pair production at hadron colliders

Top-quark physics plays an important role at hadron colliders such as the Tevatron at Fermilab or the upcoming Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN. Given the planned experimental precision, detailed theoretical predictions are mandatory. In this article we present analytic results for the complete weak corrections to gluon-induced top-quark pair production – neglecting purely photonic corrections, completing our earlier results for the quark-induced reaction. As an application we discuss top-quark pair production at the Tevatron and LHC. In particular we show that, although they are small for inclusive quantities, weak corrections can be sizeable for differential distributions.     

NNLO benchmarks for gauge and Higgs boson production at TeV hadron colliders

The inclusive production cross sections for W⁺,W⁻$W^{+},W^{-}$ and Z⁰$Z^0$-bosons form important benchmarks for the physics at hadron colliders. We perform a detailed comparison of the predictions for these standard candles based on recent next-to-next-to-leading order (NNLO) parton parameterizations and new analyses including the combined HERA data, compare to all available experimental results, and discuss the predictions for present and upcoming RHIC, SPS, Tevatron and LHC energies. The rates for gauge boson production at the LHC can be rather confidently predicted with an accuracy of better than about 10% at NNLO. We also present detailed NNLO predictions for the Higgs boson production cross sections for Tevatron and LHC energies (1.96, 7, 8, 14 TeV), and propose a possible method to monitor the gluon distribution experimentally in the kinematic region close to the mass range expected for the Higgs boson. The production cross sections of the Higgs boson at the LHC are presently predicted with an accuracy of about 10–17%. The inclusion of the NNLO contributions is mandatory for achieving such accuracies since the total uncertainties are substantially larger at NLO.     

W\gamma and Z\gamma production at hadron colliders

We present a general purpose Monte Carlo program for the calculation of any infrared safe observable in and production at hadron colliders at next-to-leading order in . We treat the leptonic decays of the W and Z-boson in the narrow-width approximation, but retain all spin information via decay angle correlations. The effect of anomalous triple gauge boson couplings is investigated and we give the analytical expressions for the corresponding amplitudes. Furthermore, we propose a way to study the effect of anomalous couplings without introducing the ambiguity of form factors. Received: 14 February 2000 / Published online: 18 May 2000     

W boson pair production at heavy Z resonance

In theories with an extra U(1) gauge boson (Z₂) at low energy, W boson pairs may be produced copiously by the process e⁺e⁻ → Z₂ → W⁺W⁻, at the Z₂ resonance. We calculate the cross section for this process, and find that it could be 1 to 2 orders of magnitude bigger than the conventional nonresonant process e⁺e⁻ → W⁺W⁻ via γ, Z and ν exchanges.     

Leptonic signals from off-shellZ boson pairs at hadron colliders

We calculate the invariant amplitudes for the process γ→γ in the full electroweak standard model and present them in concise analytical form. The differential polarized and total unpolarized cross sections are discussed in the MeV region and in the GeV region. The cross section is completely dominated by the fermion contributions at low energies whereas it is determined by the W-boson diagrams at high energies $\left( {\sqrt s \gtrsim 1TeV} \right)$ .     

Exotic hadron bound state production at hadron colliders

The non-relativistic wave function framework is applied to study the production and decay of exotic hadrons, which can be effectively described as bound states of other hadrons. Employing the factorized formulation,with the help of event generators, we investigate the production of exotic hadrons in multiproduction processes at high energy hadron colliders. This study provides crucial information for the measurements of the relevant exotic hadrons.