Next-to-leading Order Research Articles

Light-by-light scattering at next-to-leading order in QCD and QED

The recent experimental observation of Light-by-Light (LbL) scattering at the Large Hadron Collider has revived interest in this fundamental process, and especially of the accurate prediction of its cross-section, which we present here for the first time at Next-to-Leading Order (NLO) in both QCD and QED. We compare two radically different computational approaches, both exact in the fermion mass dependence, thus offering a strong cross-check of our results. The first approach is a fully analytic method to calculate compact and well-organized two-loop helicity amplitudes. The second one is entirely numerical and leverages the Local Unitarity construction. Our two calculations agree with each other and conclude that including the exact fermion mass contribution typically increases the size of the NLO corrections. Moreover, we find that the exact result converges slowly to the massless limit of the high-energy regime, thus emphasizing the importance of including the full mass dependence at NLO. We also compare our results with the ATLAS measurement of LbL in ultra-peripheral lead-lead collisions, and find that the inclusion of exact NLO corrections reduces, but does not eliminate, the existing tension with theoretical predictions.

Precise estimate of charged Higgsino/Wino decay rate

Higgsinos and Winos in the supersymmetric Standard Model are prime candidates for dark matter due to their weakly interacting nature. The mass differences between their charged components (charginos) and neutral components (neutralinos) become degenerate when other superparticles are heavy, resulting in long-lived charginos. In the case of the Winos, the mass difference is approximately 160 MeV across a wide range of the parameter space. Consequently, the chargino decays into the lightest neutralino, emitting a single charged pion. For Higgsinos, however, mass differences ranging from O(0.1) GeV to O(1) GeV are possible, leading to a variety of decay channels. In this paper, we extend our previous analysis of Wino decay to the chargino with a larger mass difference. We emphasize characterizing its decay signatures through leptonic and hadronic modes. By utilizing the latest experimental data, we perform a comprehensive study of the decay rate calculations incorporating these hadronic modes to determine the impact on the predicted chargino lifetime. Additionally, we conduct next-to-leading order (NLO) calculations for the leptonic decay modes. Our NLO results can be applied to the case of more general fermionic electroweak multiplets, e.g., quintuplet dark matter.

Complete next-to-leading order calculation of single inclusive π0 production in forward proton-nucleus collisions

We present the first fully consistent calculation of inclusive π0 production at forward rapidities at next-to-leading order (NLO) accuracy in proton-lead collisions at s=8.16 TeV within the color glass condensate approach. The center-of-mass energy dependence is determined by the Balitsky-Kovchegov equation with the initial condition constrained at NLO accuracy by the proton structure function measurements. We find that the LHCb data further constrain this nonperturbative input, and that both the NLO corrections to the evolution equation and to the impact factor have significant effects on the nuclear modification factor RpPb. The complete NLO calculation is shown to be in qualitative agreement with the LHCb data, and the predictions are found to be sensitive to the details of the applied deep inelastic scattering (DIS) fit. These results demonstrate the need to perform global analyses of DIS and LHC data in order to probe gluon saturation phenomena at precision level at very small momentum fraction x. Published by the American Physical Society 2024

Back-to-Back Inclusive Dijets in Deep Inelastic Scattering at Small x: Complete NLO Results and Predictions.

We compute the back-to-back dijet cross section in deep inelastic scattering at small x to next-to-leading order (NLO) in the color glass condensate effective field theory. Our result can be factorized into a convolution of the Weizsäcker-Williams gluon transverse-momentum-dependent distribution function (WW gluon TMD) with a universal soft factor and an NLO coefficient function. The soft factor includes both double and single logarithms in the ratio of the relative transverse momentum P_{⊥} of the dijet pair to the dijet momentum imbalance q_{⊥}; its renormalization group (RG) evolution is resummed into the Sudakov factor. Likewise, the WW TMD obeys a nonlinear RG equation in x that is kinematically constrained to satisfy both the lifetime and rapidity ordering of the projectile. Exact analytical expressions are obtained for the NLO coefficient function of transversely and longitudinally polarized photons. Our results allow for the first quantitative separation of the dynamics of Sudakov suppression from that of gluon saturation. They can be extended to other final states and provide a framework for precision tests of novel QCD many-body dynamics at the Electron-Ion Collider.

The small kT\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$k_{\ extrm{T}}$$\\end{document}region in Drell–Yan production at next-to-leading order with the parton branching method

The Parton Branching (PB) method describes the evolution of transverse momentum dependent (TMD) parton distributions, covering all kinematic regions from small to large transverse momenta kT\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$k_{\ extrm{T}}$$\\end{document}. The small kT\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$k_{\ extrm{T}}$$\\end{document}-region is very sensitive both to the contribution of the intrinsic motion of partons (intrinsic kT\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$k_{\ extrm{T}}$$\\end{document}) and to the resummation of soft gluons taken into account by the PB TMD evolution equations. We study the role of soft-gluon emissions in TMD as well as integrated parton distributions. We perform a detailed investigation of the PB TMD methodology at next-to-leading order (NLO) in Drell–Yan (DY) production for low transverse momenta. We present the extraction of the nonperturbative “intrinsic-kT\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$k_{\ extrm{T}}$$\\end{document} ” distribution from recent measurements of DY transverse momentum distributions at the LHC across a wide range in DY masses, including a detailed treatment of statistical, correlated and uncorrelated uncertainties. We comment on the (in)dependence of intrinsic transverse momentum on DY mass and center-of-mass energy, and on the comparison with other approaches.

Precise predictions for boosted Higgs production

Inclusive Higgs boson production at large transverse momentum is induced by different production channels. We focus on the leading production mechanism through gluon fusion, and perform a consistent combination of the state of the art calculations obtained in the infinite-top-mass effective theory at next-to-next-to-leading order (NNLO) and in the full Standard Model (SM) at next-to-leading order (NLO). We thus present approximate QCD predictions for this process at NNLO, and a study of the corresponding perturbative uncertainties. This calculation is then compared with those obtained with commonly used event generators, and we observe that the description of the considered kinematic regime provided by these tools is in good agreement with state of the art calculations. Finally, we present accurate predictions for other production channels such as vector boson fusion, and associated production with a gauge boson, and with a t\bar{t}tt‾ pair. We find that, at large transverse momentum, the contribution of other production modes is substantial, and therefore must be included for a precise theory prediction of this observable.

J/ψ pair hadroproduction at next-to-leading order in nonrelativistic-QCD at ATLAS* *Supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) (1905006), the Fundamental Research Funds for Beijing Universities (X18107)

We present a complete study on the pair hadroproduction at next-to-leading order (NLO) in the nonrelativstic-QCD (NRQCD) framework with the pair of in either or fock state. We found that the contribution of the channel at NLO is essential, and for ATLAS, the NRQCD results can describe the experimental data to a certain extent.

Acceleration beyond lowest order event generation. An outlook on further parallelism within MadGraph5_aMC@NLO

An important area of high energy physics studies at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) currently concerns the need for more extensive and precise comparison data. Important tools in this realm are event reweighing and evaluation of more precise next-to-leading order (NLO) processes via Monte Carlo event generators, especially in the context of the upcoming High Luminosity LHC. Current event generators need to improve throughputs for these studies. MadGraph5_aMC@NLO (MG5aMC) is an event generator being used by LHC experiments which has been accelerated considerably with a port to GPU and vector CPU architectures, but as of yet only for leading order processes. In this contribution a prototype for event reweighing using the accelerated MG5aMC software, as well as plans for an NLO implementation, are presented.

Thermal dilepton production in heavy-ion collisions at beam-energy-scan (BES) energies

The lepton pair production rate at finite temperature and at nextto-leading-order (NLO) is calculated for quark-gluon plasma at non-zero net baryon density. Yields are obtained using a (3+1)D multicomponent simulation capable of reproducing hadronic observables measured in the RHIC Beam Energy Scan (BES). Spectra of intermediate invariant mass dileptons are compared with measurements from the STAR collaboration. The result of a study where the temperature information obtained from the dilepton spectrum from heavyion collisions performed at different energies and centralities is presented.

ΔS = 0 hadronic parity violation in next-to-leading order QCD: Anomalous dimension matrices and their implications

We construct the effective Hamiltonian for hadronic parity violation in strangeness-nonchanging (ΔS=0) processes in next-to-leading order (NLO) in QCD, for all isosectors, and at a renormalization scale of 2GeV, thus extending our earlier leading-order (LO) analysis [1,2]. Hadronic parity violation, studied in the context of the low-energy interactions of nucleons and nuclei, exposes the complex interplay of weak and strong interactions in these systems, and thus supports our extension to NLO. Here we exploit the flavor-blind nature of QCD interactions to construct the needed anomalous dimension matrices from those computed in flavor physics, which we then use to refine our effective Hamiltonian and finally our predicted parity-violating meson-nucleon coupling constants, to find improved agreement with few-body experiments.

NLO corrections to the deeply virtual meson production revisited: impact on the extraction of generalized parton distributions

We revisit the next-to-leading order (NLO) perturbative QCD corrections for the deeply virtual meson production (DVMP) process, exploring its phenomenology both in isolation and in a multichannel fit combined with deeply virtual Compton scattering (DVCS). Our approach involves the conformal partial wave (CPaW) formalism, which allows for the straightforward inclusion of higher-order contributions and evolutionary effects. Our findings indicate that a description of the longitudinal component of the vector meson DVMP cross-section at high energies is achievable only at NLO within the standard collinear approach. Furthermore, we demonstrate a simultaneous description of DIS, DVCS, and DVMP processes, providing insights into the proton structure described at NLO by unique universal generalized parton distribution (GPD) functions.

Exploring slicing variables for jet processes

We consider the class of inclusive hadron collider processes in which one or more energetic jets are produced, possibly accompanied by colourless particles. We provide a general formulation of a slicing scheme for this class of processes, by identifying the various contributions that need to be computed up to next-to-leading order (NLO) in QCD perturbation theory. We focus on two novel observables, the one-jet resolution variable ∆Et and the n-jet resolution variable kTness\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$ {k}_T^{\ extrm{ness}} $$\\end{document}, and explicitly compute all the ingredients needed to carry out NLO computations using these variables. We contrast the behaviour of these variables when the slicing parameter becomes small. In the case of kTness\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$ {k}_T^{\ extrm{ness}} $$\\end{document} we also present results for the hadroproduction of multiple jets.

Gluon TMD fragmentation function into quarkonium

We compute the gluon transverse-momentum-dependent fragmentation function (TMDFF) at next-to-leading order (NLO) into heavy quarkonium in the color-octet S183\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$ {}^3{S}_1^{\\left[8\\right]} $$\\end{document} channel, based on the NRQCD factorization approach. The spurious rapidity divergences are explicitly shown to cancel in a well-defined TMDFF, which incorporates the needed soft factor. We also compute the integrated gluon FF at NLO in the same S183\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$ {}^3{S}_1^{\\left[8\\right]} $$\\end{document} channel, and show that the matching coefficient of the TMDFF onto the FF at large transverse momentum is the expected one. These results are relevant to perform precise and sensible phenomenological studies of transverse-momentum spectra of quarkonium production, for which the production mechanism through fragmentation plays a relevant role, like in the future Electron-Ion Collider.

Top quark mass calibration for Monte Carlo event generators — an update

We generalize and update our former top quark mass calibration framework for Monte Carlo (MC) event generators based on the e+e− hadron-level 2-jettiness τ2 distribution in the resonance region for boosted tt¯\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$ t\\overline{t} $$\\end{document} production, that was used to relate the Pythia 8.205 top mass parameter mtMC\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$ {m}_t^{\ extrm{MC}} $$\\end{document} to the MSR mass mtMSRR\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$ {m}_t^{\ extrm{MSR}}(R) $$\\end{document} and the pole mass mtpole\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$ {m}_t^{\ extrm{pole}} $$\\end{document}. The current most precise direct top mass measurements specifically determine mtMC\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$ {m}_t^{\ extrm{MC}} $$\\end{document}. The updated framework includes the addition of the shape variables sum of jet masses τs and modified jet mass τm, and the treatment of two more gap subtraction schemes to remove the O\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$ \\mathcal{O} $$\\end{document}(ΛQCD) renormalon related to large-angle soft radiation. These generalizations entail implementing a more versatile shape-function fit procedure and accounting for a certain type of (mt/Q)2 power corrections to achieve gap-scheme and observable independent results. The theoretical description employs boosted heavy-quark effective theory (bHQET) at next-to-next-to-logarithmic order (N2LL), matched to soft-collinear effective theory (SCET) at N2LL and full QCD at next-to-leading order (NLO), and includes the dominant top width effects. Furthermore, the software framework has been modernized to use standard file and event record formats. We update the top mass calibration results by applying the new framework to Pythia 8.305, Herwig 7.2 and Sherpa 2.2.11. Even though the hadron-level resonance positions produced by the three generators differ significantly for the same top mass parameter mtMC\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$ {m}_t^{\ extrm{MC}} $$\\end{document} value, the calibration shows that these differences arise from the hadronization modeling. Indeed, we find that mtMC\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$ {m}_t^{\ extrm{MC}} $$\\end{document} agrees with mtMSR\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$ {m}_t^{\ extrm{MSR}} $$\\end{document}(1 GeV) within 200 MeV for the three generators and differs from the pole mass by 350 to 600 MeV.

Kinematic power corrections in TMD factorization theorem

This work is dedicated to the study of power expansion in the transverse momentum dependent (TMD) factorization theorem. Each genuine term in this expansion gives rise to a series of kinematic power corrections (KPCs). All terms of this series exhibit the same properties as the leading term and share the same nonperturbative content. Among various power corrections, KPCs are especially important since they restore charge conservation and frame invariance, which are violated at a fixed power order. I derive and sum a series of KPCs associated with the leading-power term of the TMD factorization theorem. The resulting expression resembles a hadronic tensor computed with free massless quarks while still satisfying a proven factorization statement. Additionally, I provide an explicit check of this novel form of factorization theorem at the next-to-leading order (NLO) and demonstrate the restoration of the frame-invariant argument of the leading-power coefficient function. Numerical estimations show that incorporating the summed KPCs into the cross-section leads to an almost constant shift, which may help to explain the observed challenges in the TMD phenomenology.

Analysis of double-J/ψ production in Z decay at next-to-leading-order QCD accuracy

In this article, we study in detail the double-J/ψ yield through Z decay at the next-to-leading-order (NLO) QCD accuracy within the nonrelativistic QCD factorization. At the tree level, the pure QCD diagrams predict a branching ratio of BZ→J/ψ+J/ψ\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$ {\\mathcal{B}}_{Z\ o J/\\psi +J/\\psi } $$\\end{document} ~ 10−12; however, the inclusion of the QED diagrams would augment this prediction by approximately 2–3 orders of magnitude. After incorporating the QCD corrections, the QCD results exhibit a considerable increase, whereas the QED results undergo a substantial reduction. Combining the QCD and QED contributions at NLO in αs, it is observed that the prediction of BZ→J/ψ+J/ψ\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$ {\\mathcal{B}}_{Z\ o J/\\psi +J/\\psi } $$\\end{document} = (1.110−0.241−0.001+0.334+0.054\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$ {1.110}_{-0.241-0.001}^{+0.334+0.054} $$\\end{document}) × 10−10, which displays a fairly steady dependence on the renormalization scale, is significantly lower than the upper limits released by CMS.

Proton structure functions at low x: The fractal distributions

This paper presents a method for extracting the parton distribution functions (PDFs) at small momentum fractions [Formula: see text] and at the next-to-leading order (NLO) accuracy in perturbative quantum chromodynamics. It turns out that the PDFs can be described by the “Fractal” or self-similar distributions at low [Formula: see text] below [Formula: see text]. To this end, a simple parametrization for the unintegrated PDFs based on the “Fractal” approach is considered. These functions have self-similar behavior at low [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text] for sea quarks and have self-similar behavior at low [Formula: see text] for gluon distribution. By integration from these transverse momentum distributions (TMDs), the initial input densities are obtained and the model’s free parameters are then calculated using the experimental data released by the HERA experiment. The small-[Formula: see text] experimental datasets on electron–proton ([Formula: see text]) and positron–proton ([Formula: see text]) for natural current (NC) interactions in deep inelastic scattering (DIS) processes at HERA for the range of [Formula: see text] (GeV2) and [Formula: see text] are included in this analysis. The uncertainty estimations in this analysis are carried out using the standard “Hessian” method. Considering the overall value of [Formula: see text] and theory-to-data comparisons, the results indicate good agreements between the experimental datasets and the theoretical predictions. A detailed comparison is also presented between the model’s predictions for the relevant small-[Formula: see text] observable and recent parametrizations for the PDFs.

Complete analysis on QED corrections to Bq → τ+τ−

Motivated by a dynamical enhancement of the electromagnetic corrections by a power of ΛQCD/mb in Bd,s→ μ+μ− at next-to-leading order (NLO), we extend the QED factorization effects on the leptonic B meson decays with light muon leptons to tauonic final states, Bd,s→ τ+τ−, using soft-collinear effective theory (SCET). This extension is necessary owing to the appearance of the large τ mass, which will lead to different power counting in SCET and also different results. We provide a complete NLO electromagnetic corrections to Bd,s→ τ+τ−, which include hard functions and hard-collinear functions below the bottom quark mass scale μb. The power enhanced electromagnetic effects from hard-collinear contributions on Bd,s→ μ+μ− discussed before also exist in Bd,s→ τ+τ−. However the logarithm term arising from contributions of hard-collinear photon and lepton virtualities for Bd,s→ τ+τ− is not large as it is in muon case due to the hard-collinear scale of τ mass, which lead to only approximately 0.04% QED corrections to the branching fraction of Bd,s→ τ+τ− compared with overall reduction about 0.5% in Bd,s→ μ+μ−.

Taming a leading theoretical uncertainty in HH measurements via accurate simulations for bb¯H\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$ \ extrm{b}\\overline{\ extrm{b}}\ extrm{H} $$\\end{document} production

We present a new simulation for Higgs boson production in association with bottom quarks (bb¯H\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$ b\\overline{b}H $$\\end{document}) at next-to-leading order (NLO) accuracy matched to parton showers in hadronic collisions. Both contributions, the standard one proportional to the bottom-quark Yukawa coupling and the loop-induced one proportional to the top-quark Yukawa coupling from the gluon-fusion process, are taken into account in a scheme with massive bottom quarks. Therefore, we provide the full simulation of the bb¯H\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$ b\\overline{b}H $$\\end{document} final state in the Standard Model, which constitutes also a crucial background to measurements for Higgs-boson pair (HH) production at the Large Hadron Collider when at least one of the Higgs bosons decays to bottom quarks. So far, the modeling of the bb¯H\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$ b\\overline{b}H $$\\end{document} final state induced one of the dominant theoretical uncertainties to HH measurements, as the gluon-fusion component was described only at the leading order (LO) with uncertainties of O\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$ \\mathcal{O} $$\\end{document}(100%). Including NLO corrections in its simulation allows us to reduce the scale dependence to O\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$ \\mathcal{O} $$\\end{document}(50%) so that it becomes subdominant with respect to other systematic uncertainties. As a case study, we provide an in-depth analysis of the bb¯H\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$ b\\overline{b}H $$\\end{document} background to HH measurements with realistic selection cuts in the 2b2γ channel. We also compare our novel simulation with the currently-employed ones, discussing possible issues and shortcomings of a scheme with massless bottom quarks. Finally, we propagate the effect of the new bb¯H\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$ b\\overline{b}H $$\\end{document} simulation to HH searches in the 2b2γ and 2b2τ final states, and we find an improvement of up to 10% (20%) on the current (HL-LHC) limits on σSMHH\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$ {\\sigma}_{\ extrm{SM}}^{HH} $$\\end{document}.

Automated calculation of jet fragmentation at NLO in QCD

We present FMNLO, a framework to combine general-purpose Monte Carlo generators and fragmentation functions (FFs). It is based on a hybrid scheme of phase-space slicing method and local subtraction method, and accurate to next-to-leading order (NLO) in QCD. The new framework has been interfaced to MG5_aMC@NLO and made publicly available in this work. We demonstrate its unique ability by giving theoretical predictions of various fragmentation measurements at the LHC, followed by comparison with the data. With the help of interpolation techniques, FMNLO allows for fast calculation of fragmentation processes for a large number of different FFs, which makes it a promising tool for future fits of FFs. As an example, we perform a NLO fit of parton fragmentation functions to unidentified charged hadrons using measurements at the LHC. We find the ATLAS data from inclusive dijet production show a strong constraining power. Notable disparities are found between our gluon FF and that of BKK, DSS and NNFF, indicating the necessities of additional constraints and data for gluon fragmentation function.