Automation of NLO QCD and EW corrections with <Emphasis Type="BoldSmallCaps">Sherpa</Emphasis> and <Emphasis Type="BoldSmallCaps">Recola</Emphasis>

This publication presents the combination of the one-loop matrix-element generator Recola with the multipurpose Monte Carlo program Sherpa. Since both programs are highly automated, the resulting Sherpa +Recola framework allows for the computation of – in principle – any Standard Model process at both NLO QCD and EW accuracy. To illustrate this, three representative LHC processes have been computed at NLO QCD and EW: vector-boson production in association with jets, off-shell \(\mathrm{Z}\)-boson pair production, and the production of a top-quark pair in association with a Higgs boson. In addition to fixed-order computations, when considering QCD corrections, all functionalities of Sherpa, i.e. particle decays, QCD parton showers, hadronisation, underlying events, etc. can be used in combination with Recola. This is demonstrated by the merging and matching of one-loop QCD matrix elements for Drell–Yan production in association with jets to the parton shower. The implementation is fully automatised, thus making it a perfect tool for both experimentalists and theorists who want to use state-of-the-art predictions at NLO accuracy.     

The NLO jet vertex for Mueller-Navelet and forward jets: the gluon part

In this paper we complete our calculation of the NLO jet vertex which is part of the cross section formulae for the production of Mueller Navelet jets at hadron hadron colliders and of forward jets in deep inelastic electron proton scattering. Received: 2 September 2002 / Revised version: 16 January 2003 / Published online: 2 June 2003 RID="a" ID="a" Supported by the TMR Network "QCD and Deep Structure of Elementary Particles" RID="b" ID="b" Supported by the Alexander von Humboldt Stiftung     

Next-to-leading QCD effect on the quark compositeness search at the LHC

We present the exact next-to-leading order (NLO) QCD corrections to the dijet production induced by the quark contact interactions at the CERN Large Hadron Collider. We show that, as compared to the exact calculation, the scaled NLO QCD prediction adopted by the ATLAS Collaboration has overestimated the new physics effect on some direct observables by more than 30% and renders a higher limit on the quark compositeness scale. The destructive contribution from the exact NLO correction will also lower the compositeness scale limit set by the CMS Collaboration.     

Precise predictions for W+4-jet production at the large hadron collider

We present the next-to-leading order (NLO) QCD results for W+4-jet production at hadron colliders. This is the first hadron-collider process with five final-state objects to be computed at NLO. It represents an important background to many searches for new physics at the energy frontier. Total cross sections, as well as distributions in the jet transverse momenta, are provided for the initial LHC energy of √s = 7 TeV. We use a leading-color approximation, known to be accurate to 3% for W production with fewer jets. The calculation uses the BLACKHAT library along with the SHERPA package.     

Update of the MCSANC Monte Carlo integrator,v. 1.20

New features of the MCSANC v.1.20 program, a Monte Carlo tool for calculation of the next-to-leading order electroweak and QCD corrections to various Standard Model processes, have been presented. The extensions concern implementation of Drell–Yan-like processes and include a systematic treatment of the photon-induced contribution in proton–proton collisions and electroweak corrections beyond the NLO approximation. There are also technical improvements such as calculation of the forward–backward asymmetry for the neutral current Drell–Yan process. The updated code is suitable for studies of the effects due to EW and QCD radiative corrections to Drell–Yan (and several other) processes at the LHC and for forthcoming high-energy proton–proton colliders.     

Precision Calculations for the T-Odd Quark Pair Production at the CLIC e+e- Linear Collider

We perform the precision calculations for the e⁺e^-→q_q_(q_q_=u_u_, c_c_, d_d_,s_s_) processes up to the QCD next-to-leading order (NLO) including full weak decays for the final T-odd mirror quarks in the littlest Higgs model with T-parity (LHT) at the Compact Linear Collider (CLIC). We show the dependence of the leading order (LO) and NLO QCD corrected cross sections on the colliding energy √s, and provide the LO and QCD NLO kinematic distributions of final particles. The results show that the LO cross section can be enhanced by the NLO QCD correction and the K-factor increases obviously when the threshold of the on-shell q_q_-pair production approaches the colliding energy √s. The K-factor value varies in the range of 1.04 ～ 1.41 in our chosen parameter space. We find that a simple approximation of multiplying the LO kinematic distribution with the integrated K-factor is not appropriate for precision study of the e⁺e^-→q_q_(q_q_=u_u_, c_c_, d_d_,s_s_) processes, since the NLO QCD corrections are phase space dependent. It is necessary to calculate the differential cross sections including full NLO QCD corrections to get reliable results.     

QCD Correction to σ(e+e-→ZH→Zbb)

We study the QCD corrections to the calculated values of σ(e⁺e^-→ZH→Zbb), and find that for M_H<100 GeV, the process can be measured at the LEP energy to extract information of Higgs and the QCD corrections are negligible, namely the tree-level calculation is sufficiently aciurate for the energy range, while for M_H > 100 GeV, the Higgs-involved subprocess can only be investigated at NLC, and then the QCD correction becomes as large as 45%. For M_H > 2mt, considering the subprocess e⁺e^-→ZH→Ztt, the QCD corrections are also important and must be taken into account for the cross section evaluation.     

Scalar and pseudoscalar Higgs production in association with a top-antitop pair

We present the calculation of scalar and pseudoscalar Higgs production in association with a top-antitop pair to the next-to-leading order (NLO) accuracy in QCD, interfaced with parton showers according to the MC@NLO formalism. We apply our results to the cases of light and very light Higgs boson production at the LHC, giving results for total rates as well as for sample differential distributions, relevant to the Higgs, to the top quarks, and to their decay products. This work constitutes the first phenomenological application of aMC@NLO, a fully automated approach to complete event generation at NLO in QCD.     

SUSY QCD Impact on Top-Pair Production Associated with a Z0-Boson at a Photon-Photon Collider

The top-pair production in association with a Z⁰-boson at a photon-photon collider is an important process in probing the coupling between top-quarks and vector boson and discovering the signature of possible new physics. We describe the impact of the complete supersymmetric QCD (SQCD) next-to-leading order (NLO)radiative corrections on this process at a polarized or unpolarized photon collider, and make a comparison between the effects of the SQCD and the standard model (SM) QCD. We investigate the dependence of the lowest-order (LO) and QCD NLO corrected cross sections in both the SM and minimal supersymmetric standard model (MSSM) on colliding energy s^1/2 in different polarized photon collision modes. The LO, SM NLO, and SQCD NLO corrected distributions of the invariantmass of t\bar{t}-pair and the transverse momenta of final Z⁰-boson are presented. Our numerical results show that the pure SQCD effects in γγ→t\bar{t}z⁰ process can be more significant in the + + polarized photon collision mode than in other collision modes, and the relative SQCD radiative correction in unpolarized photon collision mode varies from 32.09\% to -1.89\% when s^1/2 goes up from 500 GeV to 1.5 TeV.     

Some problems of the jet calculus in the perturbative QCD

Some problems of the jet calculus in perturbative QCD are discussed. The first one is related to specifying the order of perturbation. Because of the cancellation of the leading-order (LO) and next-to-leading-order (NLO) terms in the ratio r of the mean multiplicities in gluon and quark jets, the results presently obtained for this ratio should be associated with the 4NLO approximation. The second problem reveals itself in calculations where corrections to some quantities (in particular, to r′ are greater at present energies than lower order terms. Some features that characterize jets and which do not suffer from this deficiency are proposed. Yet another problem lies in interpreting negative cumulant-moment values, which are considered as an indication of a changeover from attraction to repulsion in sets of specific particle content. Finally, the problem of generalizing QCD equations for generating functions is briefly discussed.     

Next-to-leading-order QCD correction to e(+)e(-)-->J/psi+eta(c) at sqrt[s]=10.6 GeV

One of the most challenging open problems in heavy quarkonium physics is the double charm production in e+e- annihilation at B factories. The measured cross section of e+e- --> J/psi + eta(c) is much larger than leading order (LO) theoretical predictions. With the nonrelativistic QCD factorization formalism, we calculate the next-to-leading order (NLO) QCD correction to this process. Taking all one loop self-energy, triangle, box, and pentagon diagrams into account, and factoring the Coulomb-singular term into the cc bound state wave function, we get an ultraviolet and infrared finite correction to the cross section of e+e- --> J/psi + eta(c) at sqrt[s] = 10:6 GeV. We find that the NLO QCD correction can substantially enhance the cross section with a K factor (the ratio of NLO to LO) of about 1.8-2.1; hence, it greatly reduces the large discrepancy between theory and experiment.     

<Emphasis Type="Italic">W</Emphasis><Superscript>+</Superscript><Emphasis Type="Italic">W</Emphasis><Superscript>+</Superscript> plus dijet production in the <Emphasis FontCategory="NonProportional">POWHEG BOX</Emphasis>

We present an implementation of the calculation of the production of W ⁺ W ⁺ plus two jets at hadron colliders, at next-to-leading order (NLO) in QCD, in the POWHEG framework, which is a method that allows the interfacing of NLO calculations to shower Monte Carlo programs. This is the first 2→4 process to be described to NLO accuracy within a shower Monte Carlo framework. The implementation was built within the POWHEG BOX package. We discuss a few technical improvements that were needed in the POWHEG BOX to deal with the computer intensive nature of the NLO calculation, and argue that further improvements are possible, so that the method can match the complexity that is reached today in NLO calculations. We have interfaced our POWHEG implementation with PYTHIA and HERWIG, and present some phenomenological results, discussing similarities and differences between the pure NLO and the POWHEG+PYTHIA calculation both for inclusive and more exclusive distributions. We have made the relevant code available at the POWHEG BOX web site.     

B→(J/ψ,ηc)K decays in the perturbative QCD approach

In this paper, we calculated the B→(J/ψ,ηc)K decays in the perturbative QCD (pQCD) factoriza-tion approach with the inclusion of the partial next-to-leading order (NLO) contributions. With the inclusion of the significant enhancement from the NLO vertex corrections, the NLO pQCD predictions for the branching ra-tios agree with the data within 2σ errors: Br(B0→J/ψK0)=5.2+3.5-2.8×10-4,Br(B+→J/ψK+)=5.6+3.7-2.9×10-4,Br(B0→ηcK0)=5.5+2.3-2.0×10-4,Br(B+→ηcK+)=5.9+2.5-2.1×10-4.     

A test for the gluon selfcoupling in the reactionse + e −→4 jets andZ 0→4 jets

We consider the reactionse ⁺ e ^?→γ^*→4 jets andZ ^o→4 jets with the 4 jets coming in two pairs of essentially back to back jets of high and low energy. We calculate the angular distribution of the low energy jet axis with respect to the high energy jet axis in QCD, in an abelian gluon model “QED” and a phase space model (PS). Using simple helicity arguments we show that our angular distribution is very sensitive to the triple gluon coupling in QCD. This is then confirmed by a complete calculation. Our correlation offers, therefore, a direct test for QCD as a non-abelian gauge theory.     

High-E_T inclusive jet cross sections in photoproduction at HERA

Inclusive jet differential cross sections for the reaction with quasi-real photons have been measured with the ZEUS detector at HERA. These cross sections are given for the photon-proton centre-of-mass energy interval 134 277 GeV and jet pseudorapidity in the range in the laboratory frame. The results are presented for three cone radii in the plane, . Measurements of above various jet-transverse-energy thresholds up to 25 GeV and in three ranges of W are presented and compared to next-to-leading order (NLO) QCD calculations. For jets defined with differences between data and NLO calculations are seen at high and low . The measured cross sections for jets defined with are well described by the calculations in the entire measured range of and . The inclusive jet cross section for GeV is consistent with an approximately linear variation with the cone radius R in the range between 0.5 and 1.0, and with NLO calculations. Received: 11 February 1998 / Published online: 2 July 1998     

Comparison of Higgs boson mass and width determination of the LHC and a linear collider

The method originally developed for the exact calculations in QED theory is applied for the calculation of NLO effects in QCD Compton processes. QCD corrections to the structure functions and sum rules are obtained. Different interpretations of the NLO effects due to finite quark mass are discussed.     

B0-B(-)0 mixing beyond factorization in QCD sum rules

We present a calculation of the B0-B(-)0 mixing matrix element in the framework of QCD sum rules for three-point functions. We compute alpha(s) corrections to a three-point function at the three-loop level in QCD perturbation theory, which allows one to extract the matrix element with next-to-leading order (NLO) accuracy. This calculation is imperative for a consistent evaluation of experimentally measured mixing parameters since the coefficient functions of the effective Hamiltonian for B0-B(-)0 mixing are known at NLO. We find that radiative corrections violate factorization at NLO; this violation is under full control and amounts to 10%. The resulting value of the B parameter is found to be B(B)(m(b))=1+0.1(PT)-0.05(non-PT).     

NLO quark mass effects in polarized DIS

The method originally developed for the exact calculations in QED theory is applied for the calculation NLO effects in QCD Compton processes. QCD corrections to the structure functions and sum rules are obtained. Different interpretations of the NLO effects due to finite quark mass are discussed.     

Diffractive scattering on the deuteron projectile in the NLO: triple interaction of reggeized gluons

High-mass diffractive production of protons on the deuteron target is studied in the next-to-leading order (NLO) of the perturbative QCD in the BFKL approach. The non-trivial part of the NLO contributions coming from the triple interactions of the exchanged reggeons is considered. Analytic formulas are presented and shown to be infrared free and so are ready for practical calculation.