Abstract
We consider Standard Model Higgs boson production in association with a W boson in hadron collisions. We supplement the fully exclusive perturbative computation of QCD radiative effects up to next-to-next-to-leading order (NNLO) with the computation of the decay of the Higgs boson into a bb pair at next-to-leading order (NLO). We consider the selection cuts that are typically applied in the LHC experimental analysis, and we compare our fixed-order predictions with the results obtained with the MC@NLO event generator. We find that NLO corrections to the H -> bb decay can be important to obtain a reliable pT spectrum of the Higgs boson, but that, in the cases of interest, their effect is well accounted for by the parton shower Monte Carlo. NNLO corrections to the production process typically decrease the cross section by an amount which depends on the detail of the applied cuts, but they have a mild effect on the shape of the Higgs pT spectrum. We also discuss the effect of QCD radiative corrections on the invariant mass distribution of the Higgs candidate.
Highlights
JHEP04(2014)039 control of the efficiency of the selection cuts, and to assess whether the Monte Carlo tools correctly describe the relevant distributions, differential computations including the available radiative corrections are necessary
We find that next-to-leading order (NLO) corrections to the H → bb decay can be important to obtain a reliable pT spectrum of the Higgs boson, but that, in the cases of interest, their effect is well accounted for by the parton shower Monte Carlo
The ATLAS analysis [7] is based on a Monte Carlo signal sample generated with PYTHIA8 [24], whereas the CMS analysis [8] uses POWHEG interfaced with HERWIG++ [25]
Summary
JHEP04(2014) control of the efficiency of the selection cuts, and to assess whether the Monte Carlo tools correctly describe the relevant distributions, (fully) differential computations including the available radiative corrections are necessary. A fully differential computation of NNLO QCD corrections for WH production was presented in ref. As far as Monte Carlo implementations are concerned, NLO corrections to VH production have been matched to the parton shower within the MC@NLO [18] framework in ref. The ATLAS analysis [7] is based on a Monte Carlo signal sample generated with PYTHIA8 [24], whereas the CMS analysis [8] uses POWHEG interfaced with HERWIG++ [25].1. Our selection cuts typically applied by the ATLAS and CMS collaborations
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