Resummation effects in vector-boson and Higgs associated production

Abstract

Fixed-order QCD radiative corrections to the vector-boson and Higgs associated production channels, $pp\ensuremath{\rightarrow}VH$ ($V={W}^{\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}}$, $Z$), at hadron colliders are well understood. We combine higher-order perturbative QCD calculations with soft gluon resummation of both threshold logarithms and logarithms which are important at a low transverse momentum of the $VH$ pair. We study the effects of both types of logarithms on the scale dependence of the total cross section and on various kinematic distributions. The next-to-next-to-next-to-leading logarithmic resummed total cross sections at the LHC are almost identical to the fixed-order perturbative next-to-next-to-leading order rates, indicating the excellent convergence of the perturbative QCD series. Resummation of the $VH$ transverse momentum (${p}_{T}$) spectrum provides reliable results for small values of ${p}_{T}$ and suggests that implementing a jet veto will significantly decrease the cross sections.