Diphoton Production Research Articles

Diphoton production at hadron colliders: transverse-momentum resummation at next-to-next-to-leading logarithmic accuracy

We consider the transverse-momentum (q T ) distribution of a diphoton pair produced in hadron collisions. At small values of q T , we resum the logarithmically-enhanced perturbative QCD contributions up to next-to-next-to-leading logarithmic accuracy. At intermediate and large values of q T , we consistently combine resummation with the known next-to-leading order perturbative result. All perturbative terms up to order α S 2 are included in our computation which, after integration over q T , reproduces the known next- to-next-to-leading order result for the diphoton pair production total cross section. We present a comparison with LHC data and an estimate of the perturbative accuracy of the theoretical calculation by performing the corresponding variation of scales. In general we observe that the effect of the resummation is not only to recover the predictivity of the calculation at small transverse momentum, but also to improve substantially the agreement with the experimental data.

Rapidity-dependent jet vetoes

Jet vetoes are a prominent part of the signal selection in various analyses at the LHC. We discuss jet vetoes for which the transverse momentum of a jet is weighted by a smooth function of the jet rapidity. With a suitable choice of the rapidity-weighting function, such jet-veto variables can be factorized and resummed allowing for precise theory predictions. They thus provide a complementary way to divide phase space into exclusive jet bins. In particular, they provide a natural and theoretically clean way to implement a tight veto on central jets with the veto constraint getting looser for jets at increasingly forward rapidities. We mainly focus our discussion on the 0-jet case in color-singlet processes, using Higgs production through gluon fusion as a concrete example. For one of our jet-veto variables we compare the resummed theory prediction at NLL'+NLO with the recent differential cross section measurement by the ATLAS experiment in the $H\to\gamma\gamma$ channel, finding good agreement. We also propose that these jet-veto variables can be measured and tested against theory predictions in other SM processes, such as Drell-Yan, diphoton, and weak diboson production.

Large extra dimension effects through light-by-light scattering at the CERN LHC

Observing light-by-light scattering at the large hadron collider (LHC) has received quite some attention and it is believed to be a clean and sensitive channel to possible new physics. In this paper, we study the diphoton production at the LHC via the process \({{pp}}\rightarrow {{p}}\gamma \gamma {{p}}\rightarrow {{p}}\gamma \gamma {{p}}\) through graviton exchange in the large extra dimension (LED) model. Typically, when we do the background analysis, we also study the double Pomeron exchange of \(\gamma \gamma \) production. We compare its production in the quark–quark collision mode to the gluon–gluon collision mode and find that contributions from the gluon–gluon collision mode are comparable to the quark–quark one. Our result shows, for extra dimension \(\delta =4\), with an integrated luminosity \(\mathcal{L} = 200\,\mathrm{fb}^{-1}\) at the 14 TeV LHC, that diphoton production through graviton exchange can probe the LED effects up to the scale \({M}_{S}=5.06 (4.51, 5.11)\,\mathrm{TeV}\) for the forward detector acceptance \(\xi _1 (\xi _2, \xi _3)\), respectively, where \(0.0015<\xi _1<0.5\), \(0.1<\xi _2<0.5\), and \(0.0015<\xi _3<0.15\).

Diphoton production in high-energy p+A collisions

We consider semi-inclusive diphoton+jet and inclusive diphoton production in high-energy proton-nucleus collisions, treating the target nucleus as a Color-Glass-Condensate and the projectile proton in the parton model. We obtain the prompt diphoton production cross-section in terms of fragmentation and direct contributions. The fragmentation part is given in terms of single-photon and double-photon fragmentation functions. We study prompt, direct and fragmentation diphoton correlations in p+p and p+A collisions at the LHC, and show that at low values of transverse momenta of the produced photon pair, these correlations are sensitive to saturation effects. We show that back-to-back (de)-correlations in prompt diphoton production are stronger in fragmentation part than in the direct one.

Probing new physics in diphoton production with proton tagging at the Large Hadron Collider

The sensitivities to anomalous quartic photon couplings at the Large Hadron Collider are estimated using diphoton production via photon fusion. The tagging of the protons proves to be a very powerful tool to suppress the background and unprecedented sensitivities down to $7\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}1{0}^{\ensuremath{-}15}\text{ }{\mathrm{GeV}}^{\ensuremath{-}4}$ are obtained, providing a new window on extra dimensions and strongly interacting composite states in the multi-TeV range. Generic contributions to quartic photon couplings from charged and neutral particles with arbitrary spin are also presented.

Next-to-leading order QCD corrections to di-photon production in association with up to three jets at the Large Hadron Collider

We present the computation of next-to-leading order (NLO) QCD corrections to di-photon production in association with two or three hard jets in pp collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 8 TeV. The inclusion of NLO corrections is shown to substantially reduce the theoretical uncertainties estimated from scale variations on total cross section predictions. We study a range of differential distributions relevant for phenomenological studies of photon pair production in association with jets at the LHC. Using an efficient computational set-up we performed a detailed study of uncertainties due to parton distribution functions. The computation of the virtual corrections is performed using new features of the C++ library NJET.

Search for technipions in exclusive production of diphotons with large invariant masses at the LHC

We focus on exclusive production of neutral technipion π˜0 in pp collisions at the LHC, i.e. on pp→ppπ˜0 reaction. The dependence of the cross section on parameters of recently proposed vector-like Technicolor model is studied. Characteristic features of the differential distributions are discussed. For not too large technipion masses the diphoton decay channel has the dominant branching fraction. This is also the main reason for an enhanced production of neutral technipions in γγ-fusion reaction. We discuss potential backgrounds of the QCD and QED origin to the pp→pp(π˜0→γγ) process at large invariant γγ masses. We conclude that compared to inclusive case the signal-to-background ratio in the considered exclusive reaction is very favorable which thereby could serve as a good probe for Technicolor dynamics searches at the LHC.

Various Models Mimicking the SM Higgs

The new particle around 125 GeV observed at the LHC is almost consistent with the standard model Higgs boson, except that the diphoton decay mode may be excessive. We summarize a number of possibilities. We propose to use the vector–boson fusion to test the underlying model for electroweak symmetry breaking. Using the well known dijet-tagging technique to single out the vector–boson fusion mechanism, we investigate potential of vector-boson fusion to discriminate a number of models suggested to give an enhanced inclusive diphoton production rate.

NLO QCD corrections to diphoton plus jet production through graviton exchange

We present the NLO QCD corrections to the production of a photon pair in association with one jet, where the photons are stemming from graviton decay, within models of large extra dimensions. Our results for the loop amplitudes are produced with the program GOSAM for automated one-loop calculations. We show distributions for several observables for 4, 5 and 6 extra dimensions and demonstrate that the differential K-factors are far from being uniform.

Heavy quarkonium production at lowP⊥in nonrelativistic QCD with soft gluon resummation

We extend the non-relativistic QCD (NRQCD) prediction for the production of heavy quarkonium with low transverse momentum in hadronic collisions by taking into account effects from all order soft gluon resummation. Following the Collins-Soper-Sterman formalism, we resum the most singular terms in the partonic subprocesses. The theoretical predictions of $J/\psi$ and $\Upsilon$ productions are compared to the experimental data from the fixed target experiments (E866) and the collider experiments (RHIC, Tevatron, LHC). The associated non-perturbative Sudakov form factor for the gluon distributions is found to be different from the previous assumption of rescaling the quark form factor by the ratio of color factors. This conclusion should be further checked by future experiments on Higgs boson and/or di-photon production in $pp$ collisions. We also comment on the implication of our results on determining the color-octet matrix elements associated with the $J/\psi$ and $\Upsilon$ productions in the NRQCD factorization formalism.

Photon isolation effects at NLO in γγ+jet final states in hadronic collisions

We present the NLO QCD corrections to diphoton plus jet production at hadron colliders. Our calculation includes contributions from the fragmentation of a hadronic jet into a highly energetic photon, and consequently allows the implementation of arbitrary infrared-safe photon isolation definitions. We compare different photon isolation criteria and perform a detailed study of the dependence of the diphoton plus jet cross section on the photon isolation parameters.

Diphoton rate of the standard-model-like Higgs boson in the extraU(1)extended MSSM

Motivated by the excess in the diphoton production rate of the Higgs boson at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), we investigate the possibility that one of the CP-even Higgs bosons of the extra U(1) extended minimal supersymmetric standard model can give a consistent result. We scan the parameter space for a standard-model-like Higgs boson such that the mass is in the range of 124-127 GeV and the production rate \sigma xB of the WW*, ZZ* modes are consistent with the standard model (SM) values while that of \gamma\gamma is enhanced relative to the SM value. We find that the SM-like Higgs boson is mostly the lightest CP-even Higgs boson and it has a strong mixing with the second lightest one, which is largely singlet-like. The implications on Z\gamma production rate and properties of the other Higgs bosons are also studied.

Distinguish models mimicking the SM Higgs

The new particle around 125 GeV observed at the LHC is almost consistent with the standard model Higgs boson, except that the diphoton decay mode may be excessive. We summarize a number of possibilities. We propose to use the vector-boson fusion to test the underlying model for electroweak symmetry breaking. Using the well known dijet-tagging technique to single out the vector-boson fusion mechanism, we investigate potential of vector-boson fusion to discriminate a number of models suggested to give an enhanced inclusive diphoton production rate.

Measurement of the Cross Section for Prompt Isolated Diphoton Production Using the Full CDF Run II Data Sample

This Letter reports a measurement of the cross section for producing pairs of central prompt isolated photons in proton-antiproton collisions at a total energy sqrt[s] = 1.96 TeV using data corresponding to 9.5 fb(-1) integrated luminosity collected with the CDF II detector at the Fermilab Tevatron. The measured differential cross section is compared to three calculations derived from the theory of strong interactions. These include a prediction based on a leading order matrix element calculation merged with a parton shower model, a next-to-leading order calculation, and a next-to-next-to-leading order calculation. The first and last calculations reproduce most aspects of the data, thus showing the importance of higher-order contributions for understanding the theory of strong interaction and improving measurements of the Higgs boson and searches for new phenomena in diphoton final states.

Diphoton production at Next-to-Next-to-Leading-Order

We consider direct diphoton production in hadron collisions. We compute the next-to-next-to-leading order (NNLO) QCD radiative corrections at the fully-differential level. Our calculation uses the qT subtraction formalism and it is implemented in a parton level Monte Carlo program, which allows the user to apply arbitrary kinematical cuts on the final-state photons and the associated jet activity, and to compute the corresponding distributions in the form of bin histograms. We present selected numerical results related to Higgs boson searches at the LHC and the Tevatron, and we show how the NNLO corrections to diphoton production are relevant to understand the main background of the decay channel H→γγ of the Higgs boson H.

Direct Photon Results from CDF

Direct (prompt) photon production is a field of very high interest in hadron colliders. It provides probes to search for new phenomena and to test QCD predictions. In this article, two recent cross-section results for direct photon production using the full CDF Run II data set are presented: diphoton production and photon production in association with a heavy quark.

Higgs to Diphoton Decay Rate and the Antisymmetric Tensor Unparticle Mediation

We study the contribution of the antisymmetric tensor unparticle mediation to the diphoton production rate of the Higgs boson and try to explain the discrepancy between the measured value of the decay width of the discovered new resonance and that of the standard model Higgs boson. We observe that tree level contribution of the antisymmetric unparticle mediation is a possible candidate to explain the measured value of the diphoton decay rate.

Prompt Photon Production at the Tevatron and LHC

Prompt photon production has been studied by the CDF and DØ experiments at the Fermilab Tevatron collider in pp̅ collisions at the centre of mass energy of √s = 1.96 TeV and by the ATLAS experiment at LHC in pp collisions at √s = 7 TeV.Measurements of the inclusive photon, inclusive photon plus jet, photon plus heavy flavor jet, and diphoton production cross sections are discussed. The results are compared to the perturbative QCD calculations and predictions from Monte Carlo generators.

Diphoton production in the ADD model to NLO + parton shower accuracy at the LHC

In this paper, we present the next-to-leading order predictions for diphoton production in the ADD model, matched to the HERWIG parton shower using the MC@NLO formalism. A selection of the results is presented for d=2-6 extra dimensions, using generic cuts as well as analysis cuts mimicking the search strategies as pursued by the ATLAS and CMS experiments.

Distinguishing various models of the 125 GeV boson in Vector Boson Fusion

The hint of a new particle around 125 GeV at the LHC through the decay modes of diphoton and a number of others may point to quite a number of possibilities. While at the LHC the dominant production mechanism for the Higgs boson of the standard model and some other extensions is via the gluon fusion process, the alternative vector boson fusion is more sensitive to electroweak symmetry breaking through the gauge-Higgs couplings and therefore can be used to probe for models beyond the standard model. In this work, using the well known dijet-tagging technique to single out the vector boson fusion mechanism, we investigate its capability to discriminate a number of models that have been suggested to give an enhanced inclusive diphoton production rate, including the standard model Higgs boson, fermiophobic Higgs boson, Randall-Sundrum radion, inert-Higgs-doublet model, two-Higgs-doublet model, and the MSSM. The rates in vector-boson fusion can give more information of the underlying models to help distinguishing among the models.