Search

We evaluate the top-bottom interference contribution to the fully inclusive Higgs production cross section at next-to-next-to-leading order in QCD. Although bottom-quark-mass effects are power suppressed, the accuracy of state-of-the-art theory predictions makes an exact determination of this effect indispensable. The total effect of the interference at 13 TeV is -1.99(1)_{-0.15}^{+0.30}  pb, while the pure O(α_{s}^{4}) correction is 0.43 pb. With this result, we address one of the leading theory uncertainties of the cross section.

The impact of the finite top-quark mass on the inclusive Higgs production cross section at higher perturbative orders has been an open question for almost three decades. In this Letter, we report on the computation of this effect at next-to-next-to-leading order QCD. For the purely gluonic channel, it amounts to +0.62% relative to the result obtained in the Higgs effective field theory approximation. The formally subleading partonic channels overcompensate this shift, leading to an overall effect of -0.26% at a pp collider energy of 13 TeV, and -0.1% at 8 TeV. This result eliminates one of the main theoretical uncertainties to inclusive Higgs production cross section at the LHC.

Multijet rates at hadron colliders provide a unique possibility for probing quantum chromodynamics (QCD), the theory of strong interactions. By comparing theory predictions with collider data, one can directly test perturbative QCD, extract fundamental parameters like the strong coupling α_{s}, and search for physics beyond the standard model. In this work we calculate, for the first time, the next-to-next-to-leading order (NNLO) QCD corrections to typical three-jet observables and to differential three-to-two jet ratios. The calculation is complete apart from the three-jet double virtual contributions which are included in the leading-color approximation. We demonstrate that the inclusion of the NNLO corrections significantly reduces the dependence of those observables on the factorization and renormalization scales. Besides its phenomenological value, this proof-of-principle computation represents a milestone in perturbative QCD.

We calculate, for the first time, the next-to-next-to-leading order (NNLO) QCD corrections to spin correlations in top quark pair production at the LHC. The NNLO corrections play an important role in the description of the corresponding differential distributions. We observe that the standard model calculation describes the available Δϕ_{ℓℓ} data in the fiducial region but does not agree with the Δϕ_{ℓℓ} measurement extrapolated to full phase space. Most likely this discrepancy is due to the difference in precision between existing event generators and NNLO calculations for dilepton top-pair final states.

We present the first complete next-to-next-to-leading order (NNLO) QCD predictions for differential distributions in the top-quark pair production process at the LHC. Our results are derived from a fully differential partonic Monte Carlo calculation with stable top quarks which involves no approximations beyond the fixed-order truncation of the perturbation series. The NNLO corrections improve the agreement between existing LHC measurements [V. Khachatryan et al. (CMS Collaboration), Eur. Phys. J. C 75, 542 (2015)] and standard model predictions for the top-quark transverse momentum distribution, thus helping alleviate one long-standing discrepancy. The shape of the top-quark pair invariant mass distribution turns out to be stable with respect to radiative corrections beyond NLO which increases the value of this observable as a place to search for physics beyond the standard model. The results presented here provide essential input for parton distribution function fits, implementation of higher-order effects in Monte Carlo generators, as well as top-quark mass and strong coupling determination.

We determine the dominant missing standard model (SM) contribution to the top quark pair forward-backward asymmetry at the Tevatron. Contrary to past expectations, we find a large, around 27%, shift relative to the well-known value of the inclusive asymmetry in next-to-leading order QCD. Combining all known standard model corrections, we find that A(FB)(SM)=0.095±0.007. This value is in agreement with the latest DØ measurement [V. M. Abazov et al. (D0 Collaboration), Phys. Rev. D 90, 072011 (2014)] A(FB)(D∅)=0.106±0.03 and about 1.5σ below that of CDF [T. Aaltonen et al. (CDF Collaboration), Phys. Rev. D 87, 092002 (2013)] A(FB)(CDF)=0.164±0.047. Our result is derived from a fully differential calculation of the next-to-next-to leading order (NNLO) QCD corrections to inclusive top pair production at hadron colliders and includes-without any approximation-all partonic channels contributing to this process. This is the first complete fully differential calculation in NNLO QCD of a two-to-two scattering process with all colored partons.

Weak radiative decays of the B mesons belong to the most important flavor changing processes that provide constraints on physics at the TeV scale. In the derivation of such constraints, accurate standard model predictions for the inclusive branching ratios play a crucial role. In the current Letter we present an update of these predictions, incorporating all our results for the O(α_{s}^{2}) and lower-order perturbative corrections that have been calculated after 2006. New estimates of nonperturbative effects are taken into account, too. For the CP- and isospin-averaged branching ratios, we find B_{sγ}=(3.36±0.23)×10^{-4} and B_{dγ}=(1.73_{-0.22}^{+0.12})×10^{-5}, for E_{γ}>1.6 GeV. Both results remain in agreement with the current experimental averages. Normalizing their sum to the inclusive semileptonic branching ratio, we obtain R_{γ}≡(B_{sγ}+B_{dγ})/B_{cℓν}=(3.31±0.22)×10^{-3}. A new bound from B_{sγ} on the charged Higgs boson mass in the two-Higgs-doublet-model II reads M_{H^{±}}>480 GeV at 95% C.L.

Light stops are a hallmark of the most natural realizations of weak-scale supersymmetry. While stops have been extensively searched for, there remain open gaps around and below the top mass, due to similarities of stop and top signals with current statistics. We propose a new fast-track avenue to improve light stop searches for R-parity-conserving supersymmetry by comparing top cross section measurements to the theoretical prediction. Stop masses below ∼180  GeV can now be ruled out for a light neutralino. The possibility of a stop signal contaminating the top mass measurement is also briefly addressed.

We compute the next-to-next-to-leading order (NNLO) quantum chromodynamics (QCD) correction to the total cross section for the reaction gg → tt + X. Together with the partonic channels we computed previously, the result derived in this Letter completes the set of NNLO QCD corrections to the total top pair-production cross section at hadron colliders. Supplementing the fixed order results with soft-gluon resummation with next-to-next-to-leading logarithmic accuracy, we estimate that the theoretical uncertainty of this observable due to unknown higher order corrections is about 3% at the LHC and 2.2% at the Tevatron. We observe a good agreement between the standard model predictions and the available experimental measurements. The very high theoretical precision of this observable allows a new level of scrutiny in parton distribution functions and new physics searches.

We compute the next-to-next-to-leading order QCD corrections to the partonic reaction that dominates top-pair production at the Tevatron. This is the first ever next-to-next-to-leading order calculation of an observable with more than two colored partons and/or massive fermions at hadron colliders. Augmenting our fixed order calculation with soft-gluon resummation through next-to-next-to-leading logarithmic accuracy, we observe that the predicted total inclusive cross section exhibits a very small perturbative uncertainty, estimated at ±2.7%. We expect that once all subdominant partonic reactions are accounted for, and work in this direction is ongoing, the perturbative theoretical uncertainty for this observable could drop below ±2%. Our calculation demonstrates the power of our computational approach and proves it can be successfully applied to all processes at hadron colliders for which high-precision analyses are needed.

We report the results of a next-to-leading order simulation of top quark pair production in association with two jets. With our inclusive cuts, we show that the corrections with respect to leading order are negative and small, reaching 11%. The error obtained by scale variation is of the same order. Additionally, we reproduce the result of a previous study of top quark pair production in association with a single jet.

Using dispersion relations, we derive the complete virtual QED contributions to Bhabha scattering due to vacuum polarization effects. We apply our result to hadronic corrections and to heavy lepton and top quark loop insertions. We give the first complete estimate of their net numerical effects for both small and large angle scattering at typical beam energies of meson factories, the CERN Large Electron-Positron Collider, and the International Linear Collider. With a typical amount of 1-3 per mil they are of relevance for precision experiments.

Combining our results for various O(alpha[s]) corrections to the weak radiative B-meson decay, we are able to present the first estimate of the branching ratio at the next-to-next-to-leading order in QCD. We find B(B[over ]-->X[s]gamma)=(3.15+/-0.23) x 10(-4) for Egamma>1.6 GeV in the B[over ]-meson rest frame. The four types of uncertainties:nonperturbative (5%), parametric (3%), higher-order (3%), and m(c)-interpolation ambiguity (3%) have been added in quadrature to obtain the total error.

We confirm by explicit computation the conjectured all-orders iteration of planar maximally supersymmetric N=4 Yang-Mills theory in the nontrivial case of five-point two-loop amplitudes. We compute the required unitarity cuts of the integrand and evaluate the resulting integrals numerically using a Mellin-Barnes representation and the automated package of Czakon [Comput. Phys. Commun. 175, 559 (2006)]. This confirmation of the iteration relation provides further evidence suggesting that N=4 gauge theory is solvable.

We present a complete calculation of the contributions to the effective leptonic weak mixing angle, sin((2)theta;(lept)(eff), generated by closed fermion loops at the two-loop level of the electroweak interactions. This quantity is the source of the most stringent bound on the mass M(H) of the standard model Higgs boson. The size of the corrections with respect to known partial results varies between -4 x 10(-5) and -8 x 10(-5) for a realistic range of M(H) from 100 to 300 GeV. This translates into a shift of the predicted (from sin((2)theta;(lept)(eff) alone) central value of M(H) by +19 GeV, to be compared with the shift induced by a recent change in the measured top quark mass which amounts to +36 GeV.

The last missing correction to the muon lifetime in the standard model at O(alpha(2)) coming from gauge and Higgs boson loops is presented. The associated contribution to the parameter Deltar in the on-shell scheme ranges from 6x10(-5) to -4x10(-5) for Higgs boson masses from 100 GeV to 1 TeV. This result translates into a shift of the W boson mass which does not exceed +/-1 MeV in the same range and amounts, in particular, to approximately -0.8 MeV for a 115 GeV Higgs boson.