Search

We discuss the theoretical bases that underpin the automation of the computations of tree-level and next-to-leading order cross sections, of their matching to parton shower simulations, and of the merging of matched samples that differ by light-parton multiplicities. We present a computer program, MadGraph5_aMC@NLO, capable of handling all these computations -- parton-level fixed order, shower-matched, merged -- in a unified framework whose defining features are flexibility, high level of parallelisation, and human intervention limited to input physics quantities. We demonstrate the potential of the program by presenting selected phenomenological applications relevant to the LHC and to a 1-TeV $e^+e^-$ collider. While next-to-leading order results are restricted to QCD corrections to SM processes in the first public version, we show that from the user viewpoint no changes have to be expected in the case of corrections due to any given renormalisable Lagrangian, and that the implementation of these are well under way., Comment: 158 pages, 27 figures; a few references have been added

Continuing our previous studies on QED and QCD processes, we use the graphics processing unit (GPU) for fast calculations of helicity amplitudes for general Standard Model (SM) processes. Additional HEGET codes to handle all SM interactions are introduced, as well assthe program MG2CUDA that converts arbitrary MadGraph generated HELAS amplitudess(FORTRAN) into HEGET codes in CUDA. We test all the codes by comparing amplitudes and cross sections for multi-jet srocesses at the LHC associated with production of single and double weak bosonss a top-quark pair, Higgs boson plus a weak boson or a top-quark pair, and multisle Higgs bosons via weak-boson fusion, where all the heavy particles are allowes to decay into light quarks and leptons with full spin correlations. All the helicity amplitudes computed by HEGET are found to agree with those comsuted by HELAS within the expected numerical accuracy, and the cross sections obsained by gBASES, a GPU version of the Monte Carlo integration program, agree wish those obtained by BASES (FORTRAN), as well as those obtained by MadGraph. The performance of GPU was over a factor of 10 faster than CPU for all processes except those with the highest number of jets., Comment: 37 pages, 12 figures

We use a graphics processing unit (GPU) for fast calculations of helicity amplitudes of quark and gluon scattering processes in massless QCD. New HEGET ({\bf H}ELAS {\bf E}valuation with {\bf G}PU {\bf E}nhanced {\bf T}echnology) codes for gluon self-interactions are introduced, and a C++ program to convert the MadGraph generated FORTRAN codes into HEGET codes in CUDA (a C-platform for general purpose computing on GPU) is created. Because of the proliferation of the number of Feynman diagrams and the number of independent color amplitudes, the maximum number of final state jets we can evaluate on a GPU is limited to 4 for pure gluon processes ($gg\to 4g$), or 5 for processes with one or more quark lines such as $q\bar{q}\to 5g$ and $qq\to qq+3g$. Compared with the usual CPU-based programs, we obtain 60-100 times better performance on the GPU, except for 5-jet production processes and the $gg\to 4g$ processes for which the GPU gain over the CPU is about 20.

We use the graphics processing unit (GPU) for fast calculations of helicity amplitudes of physics processes. As our first attempt, we compute $u\bar{u}\to n\gamma$ ($n=2$ to 8) processes in $pp$ collisions at $\sqrt{s} = 14$TeV by transferring the MadGraph generated HELAS amplitudes (FORTRAN) into newly developed HEGET ({\bf H}ELAS {\bf E}valuation with {\bf G}PU {\bf E}nhanced {\bf T}echnology) codes written in CUDA, a C-platform developed by NVIDIA for general purpose computing on the GPU. Compared with the usual CPU programs, we obtain 40-150 times better performance on the GPU., Comment: 14 pages, 8 figures

We present a simple method to automatically evaluate arbitrary tree-level amplitudes involving the production or decay of a heavy quark pair QQbar in a generic {2S+1}L_J^[1,8] state, i.e., the short distance coefficients appearing in the NRQCD factorization formalism. Our approach is based on extracting the relevant contributions from the open heavy quark-antiquark amplitudes through an expansion with respect to the quark-antiquark relative momentum and the application of suitable color and spin projectors. To illustrate the capabilities of the method and its implementation in MadGraph a few applications to quarkonium collider phenomenology are presented., Comment: 17 pages, 7 figures

We present a complete calculation of weak boson fusion production of colorless supersymmetric particles at the LHC, using the new matrix element generator SUSY-MadGraph. The cross sections are small, generally at the attobarn level, with a few notable exceptions which might provide additional supersymmetric parameter measurements. We discuss in detail how to consistently define supersymmetric weak couplings to preserve unitarity of weak gauge boson scattering amplitudes to fermions, and derive sum rules for weak supersymmetric couplings., Comment: 24 p., 3 fig., 9 tab., published in PRD; numbers in Table IV corrected to those with kinematic cuts cited

We study the quantum mechanical correlation between two identical neutralinos in the decays of minimal supersymmetric standard model (MSSM) scalar tau (stau) pair produced in e+e- annihilation. Generally, the decay products of scalar (spinless) particles are not correlated. We show that a correlation between two neutralinos appears near pair production threshold, due to a finite stau width and mixing of the staus and/or neutralinos, and because the neutralinos are Majorana. Because the correlation is significant only in a specific kinematical configuration, it can be observed only in supersymmetric models where the neutralino momenta can be kinematically reconstructed, such as in models with R-parity violation., Comment: revtex, 10 pages, 8 eps figures; references added, version to appear in PRD

We introduce a new color decomposition for multi-parton amplitudes in QCD, free of fundamental-representation matrices and structure constants. This decomposition has a physical interpretation in terms of the flow of color, which makes it ideal for merging with shower Monte-Carlo programs. The color-flow decomposition allows for very efficient evaluation of amplitudes with many quarks and gluons, many times faster than the standard color decomposition based on fundamental-representation matrices. This will increase the speed of event generators for multi-jet processes, which are the principal backgrounds to signals of new physics at colliders., Comment: 23 pages, 11 figures, version to appear on Phys. Rev. D

We study the production of the Higgs boson in association with a single top quark at hadron colliders. The cross sections for the three production processes (t-channel, s-channel, and W-associated) at both the Tevatron and the LHC are presented. We investigate the possibility of detecting a signal for the largest of these processes, the t-channel process at the LHC, via the Higgs decay into b b-bar. The QCD backgrounds are large and difficult to curb, hindering the extraction of the signal. Extensions of our analysis to the production of supersymmetric Higgs bosons are also addressed. The cross section is enhanced for large values of tangent beta, increasing the prospects for extracting a signal., Comment: 22 pages, 13 figures

We review the prospects for studies of the top quark at the LHC., Comment: 111 pages, Latex, to appear in the Report of the ``1999 CERN Workshop on SM physics (and more) at the LHC'', M.Beneke, I.Efthymiopoulos, M.L.Mangano, J.Womersley (conveners)

We present a calculation of two photon radiation in W and Z boson production in hadronic collisions, based on the complete matrix elements for the processes q\bar q'\to\ell^\pm\nu\gamma\gamma and q\bar q\to\ell^+\ell^-\gamma\gamma, including finite charged lepton masses. In order to achieve stable numerical results over the full phase space, multiconfiguration Monte Carlo techniques are used to map the peaks in the differential cross section. Numerical results are presented for the Fermilab Tevatron., Comment: Revtex, 28 pages, 3 figures

We argue that the leading-order subprocess for Higgs-boson production in association with bottom quarks is (b\bar{b} -> H). This process is an important source of Higgs bosons with enhanced Yukawa coupling to bottom quarks. We calculate the corrections to this cross section at next-to-leading-order in 1/ln(m_H/m_b) and alpha_s and at next-to-next-to-leading order in 1/ln(m_H/m_b)., Comment: To appear in PRD, typos corrected, 18 pages, LaTeX, 8 ps figures

Top quark events in hadron collisions often contain additional hadronic jets from gluon bremsstrahlung off the quarks and gluons in the hard subprocesses. Such extra jets must be taken into account in attempts to reconstruct the momentum of the top quark from those of its decay products. We have performed a complete calculation of gluon radiation in top production and decay at the Fermilab Tevatron including hadronically decaying W bosons. In this talk we discuss the effect of gluon radiation on the reconstructed mass of the top quark, using various top mass reconstruction scenarios. Implications for the LHC are briefly discussed., Comment: 5 pages including 4 figures, LaTeX, uses ltwol.sty, talk given by LHO at ICHEP98, Vancouver, B.C., July 23-29, 1998

Single-top-quark production probes the charged-current weak interaction of the top quark, and provides a direct measurement of the CKM matrix element V_{tb}. We perform two independent analyses to quantify the accuracy with which the W-gluon fusion (gq -> t\bar{b}q) and (q\bar{q} -> t\bar{b}) signals can be extracted from the backgrounds at both the Tevatron and the LHC. Although perturbation theory breaks down at low transverse momentum for the W-gluon fusion \bar{b} differential cross section, we show how to obtain a reliable cross section integrated over low \bar{b} transverse momenta up to a cutoff. We estimate the accuracy with which V_{tb} can be measured in both analyses, including theoretical and statistical uncertainties. We also show that the polarization of the top quark in W-gluon fusion can be detected at the Fermilab Tevatron and the CERN LHC., Comment: Version to appear in PRD, 31 pages, LaTeX, 8 ps figures

The pole mass of a heavy quark is ambiguous by an amount of order $\Lambda_{QCD}$. We show that the heavy-quark potential, $V(r)$, is similarly ambiguous, but that the total static energy, $2M_{pole}+V(r)$, is unambiguous when expressed in terms of a short-distance mass. This implies that the extraction of a short-distance mass from the quarkonium spectrum is free of an ambiguity of order $\Lambda_{QCD}$, in contrast with the pole mass., Comment: 6 pages, LateX. Minor revisions for publication

We show that the perturbation series for quarkonia energies diverges at large orders. This results in a perturbative ambiguity in the energy that scales as e^(-1/a*Lambda) where a is the Bohr radius of quarkonium and Lambda is the QCD scale parameter. This ambiguity is associated with a nonperturbative contribution to the energy from distances of order 1/Lambda and greater. This contribution is separate from that of the gluon condensate., Comment: 6 pages, 2 figures

Single-top-quark production via W-gluon fusion at hadron colliders provides an opportunity to directly probe the charged-current interaction of the top quark. We calculate the next-to-leading-order corrections to this process at the Fermilab Tevatron, the CERN Large Hadron Collider, and DESY HERA. Using a b-quark distribution function to sum collinear logarithms, we show that there are two independent corrections, of order 1/[ln(m_t^2/m_b^2)] and alpha_s. This observation is generic to processes involving a perturbatively derived heavy-quark distribution function at an energy scale large compared with the heavy-quark mass., Comment: 19 pages, 9 figures, small update to Phys. Rev. D version

Radiation of gluons gives rise to extra jets in top quark events that can lead to complications in event reconstruction and mass measurement. I review recent results for gluon radiation in top quark production and decay, and discuss their implications for top quark physics., Comment: 3 pages latex including 2 figs; usues sprocl.sty (included) Talk presented by L. Orr at DPF96, Minneapolis, MN, Aug. 1996

Understanding the pattern of gluon radiation in $t \bar t$ production and decay processes is important for making an accurate determination of the top mass from the momenta of its decay products. The larger energy of the LHC $pp$ collider boosts the top cross section by a factor of 100 compared to that at the Tevatron, but it also increases the amount of additional gluon radiation. We calculate the cross section for gluon radiation in top production and decay at the LHC. The distributions of this radiation are presented and the exact matrix-element results are compared with results from the HERWIG parton-shower Monte Carlo., Comment: 16 pages including 7 figures, plain LaTeX; minor corrections to text; results unchanged

We propose techniques to observe the correlation of the spins of top quarks and antiquarks at the Tevatron and the LHC. Observation of the spin correlation would confirm that the top quark decays before its spin flips, and would place a lower bound on the top-quark width and V_tb. The spin correlation may also be a useful tool to study the weak decay amplitude of the top quark., Comment: Version to appear in Phys. Lett. B

We consider single-top-quark production via the weak process $q\bar q to t\bar b$ at hadron colliders. This process may provide the best measurement of the magnitude of the Cabbibo-Kobayashi-Maskawa matrix element $V_{tb}$. We show that a signal can potentially be observed at the Fermilab Tevatron with 3 $fb^{-1}$ of integrated luminosity. In contrast, the signal is masked at the CERN Large Hadron Collider by top-quark pair production and single-top-quark production via $W$-gluon fusion., Comment: 12 pages latex + 5 uuencoded figures

Understanding the pattern of gluon radiation in $t \bar t$ production processes is important for making an accurate determination of the top mass from the measurement of its decay products. In a recent paper we showed that the exact matrix element and parton shower (HERWIG) calculations gave very different results for the distribution of gluon jets in $t \bar t$ production at the Tevatron $p \bar p$ collider. By repeating the calculation for the simpler $e^+e^- \to b \bar b W^+W^-g$ process, we reveal even more dramatic differences between the two approaches. We conclude that there are significant differences in gluon radiation between HERWIG and the matrix element calculation in regions of phase space where one would expect agreement., Comment: 5 pages + 4 uunecoded postscript figures

We calculate the production of 2 b-quark pairs in hadron collisions. Sources of multiple pairs are multiple interactions and higher order perturbative QCD mechanisms. We subsequently investigate the competing effects of multiple b-pair production on measurements of CP-violation: i) the increase in event rate with multiple b-pair cross sections which may reach values of order 1 barn in the presence of multiple interactions and ii) the dilution of $b$ versus $\bar b$ tagging efficiency because of the presence of events with 4 $B$-mesons. The impact of multiple $B$-meson production is small unless the cross section for producing a single pair exceeds 1~mb. We show that even for larger values of the cross section the competing effects i) and ii) roughly compensate so that there is no loss in the precision with which CP-violating CKM angles can be determined., Comment: 14 pages, Latex file using ReVTeX. 7 figures. To Appear in Phys Rev D

We present a complete calculation of the matrix elements for the processes $q \bar q, gg \to b W^+ \bar b W^- g$ and $qg \to b W^+ \bar b W^- q$ which are relevant for the study of events with an additional jet in $t \bar t$ production at the Tevatron $p \bar p $ collider. Our calculation includes (i) the contributions from gluons emitted during the top production and decay stages and the interference between these, and (ii) the complete set of Feynman diagrams corresponding to both resonant and non-resonant top production. We study the distribution in phase space of the additional parton jet and make comparisons with previous studies based on the soft-gluon approximation and with results from parton-shower Monte Carlo simulations. The implications for top mass measurements are briefly discussed., Comment: 12 pages, latex, 9 uuencoded postscript figures

We present first results of $Z+4$ jet cross sections at the Tevatron $p\bar p$ collider with heavy quark flavor identification. The $Z + 4$ jet channel is of particular interest as a normalizer for the $W +4$ jet background to top quark signals, as a background to a possible $t\to cZ$ flavor-changing neutral-current (FCNC) decay signal, and as a background to missing-$p_T$ signals from gluino pairs. We also calculate the different heavy flavor contributions to $W+4$ jet production. The MADGRAPH program is used to generate all leading order subprocess helicity amplitudes. We present Monte Carlo studies with separation and acceptance criteria suitable for the Tevatron experimental analyses., Comment: Presented by E. Mirkes at DPF94 Meeting, Albuquerque, New Mexico, August 2-6,1994. 4 pages (LaTex)

We present the first calculation of $Z+4$ jet production with heavy quark flavor identification at the Tevatron $p\bar p$ collider. The $Z + 4$ jet channel is especially interesting as a normalizer for the $W +4$ jet background to top quark signals, as a background to a possible $t\to cZ$ flavor-changing neutral-current (FCNC) decay signal, and as a background to missing-$p_T$ signals from gluino pairs. We also calculate the contributions to $W+4$ jet production from all the different heavy-flavor final states. The MADGRAPH program is used to generate all leading order subprocess helicity amplitudes. We present Monte Carlo results with separation and acceptance criteria suitable for the Tevatron experimental analyses. The dependence of the cross sections on experimental cuts and the theoretical ambiguities due to the scale dependence are discussed. The predicted ($W+4$ jet)/($Z+4$ jet) ratio is insensitive to most of these choices., Comment: 8 pages (LaTeX), MAD/PH/844, RAL-94-070, to be published in Phys. Lett. B

We present exact tree level cross sections for the single top production process $e^- e^+ \rightarrow e^- \bar{\nu}_e t \bar{b} $ at LEP~200. The results reproduce roughly those obtained earlier by using the equivalent real photon approximation and we confirm the observation that detecting a top heavier than half the c.m.~energy is not feasible at LEP~200. The calculation has been performed by a new automatic Feynman amplitude generator MadGraph which produces HELAS code for the helicity amplitudes., Comment: 7 pages, 4 postscript figures

The program MadGraph is presented which automatically generates postscript Feynman diagrams and Fortran code to calculate arbitrary tree level helicity amplitudes by calling HELAS[1] subroutines. The program is written in Fortran and is available in Unix and VMS versions. MadGraph currently includes standard model interactions of QCD and QFD, but is easily modified to include additional models such as supersymmetry., Comment: Standard Latex file. 21 pages. 1 postscript figure appended after "\end{document}". Uses epsf.sty (available from hep-ph) to place figure. Can be TeXed without the figure if you don't have postscript. Harcopies or postscript file of entire paper available on request. MAD/PH/813

We examine the structure of the underlying event in neutral Higgs production at the Superconducting-Supercollider (SSC). Gaps, regions of rapidity containing no soft particle production, can provide a clean signature for $W$ boson fusion to the heavy Higgs. We first examine the physical basis of gap production and estimate the survival probability of gaps in the minijet model. Then, using PYTHIA, and HERWIG we compare gap events to $W$ pair production from top decay and $q\bar{q}$ fusion. We find that, if experimental problems can be overcome, gaps should provide a small, but clean, signal for heavy Higgs production at the SSC., Comment: 24 Latex pages 5 postscript figures available upon request MAD/PH/76 BA-93-31