Search

We present a novel approach for loop integral reduction in the Feynman parametrization using intersection theory and relative cohomology. In this framework, Feynman integrals correspond to boundary-supported differential forms in the language of relative cohomology. The integral reduction can then be achieved by computing intersection numbers. We apply our method in several examples to demonstrate its correctness, and discuss the subtleties in certain degenerate limits.

The production of a Higgs boson in association with a top-antitop quark pair ($t\bar{t}H$) holds significant importance in directly probing the top-quark Yukawa coupling, which is related to various fundamental questions in high energy physics. This paper focuses on the calculation of two-loop amplitudes for $t\bar t H$ production at hadron colliders in the high-energy boosted limit. The calculation employs our recently developed mass-factorization formula. To validate the accuracy of our approximate methods, we compare our results for the one-loop amplitudes and the two-loop infrared poles with the exact calculations. We then provide predictions for the finite parts of the two-loop amplitudes. By combining the contributions from real emissions, our results can be utilized to compute the next-to-next-to-leading order differential cross sections for $t\bar t H$ production in the high-energy boosted limit., Comment: 34 pages, 8 figures and 6 tables

In this note, we propose a factorization formula for gauge-theory scattering amplitudes up to two loops in the high-energy boosted limit. Our formula extends existing results in the literature by incorporating the contributions from massive loops. We derive the new ingredients in our formula using the method of regions with analytic regulators for the rapidity divergences. We verify our results with various form factors and the scattering amplitudes for top-quark pair production. Our results can be used to obtain approximate expressions for complicated two-loop massive amplitudes from simpler massless ones, and can be used to resum the mass logarithms to all orders in the coupling constant., Comment: 19 pages, 2 figures

Following our previous study of the recursive structure of Baikov representations, we discuss its application in the integration-by-parts reduction of Feynman integrals. We combine the top-down reduction approach with the recursive structure, which can greatly simplify the calculation for each sector in many cases. We introduce a new concept called the top-sector ISP reduction, which generalizes the maximal-cut reduction by retaining the sub-sector information. After subtracting the top-sector components, we provide a general method to transform the remaining integrand explicitly to sub-sectors, such that the reduction procedure can be carried out recursively. In this work, we use the intersection theory to demonstrate our method, although it can be applied to any implementation of the integration-by-parts reduction., Comment: matched with published version

In this talk, we discuss how to generalize ideas developed for Banana integrals to two two-loop non-planar triangle Feynman integrals involving elliptic curves, which have non-trivial sub-sectors and whose Picard-Fuchs operators share less symmetry than Banana integrals, to obtain the canonical differential equations and to solve them with suitable boundary conditions., Comment: RADCOR2023

In this paper, we investigate two-loop non-planar triangle Feynman integrals involving elliptic curves. In contrast to the Sunrise and Banana integral families, the triangle families involve non-trivial sub-sectors. We show that the methodology developed in the context of Banana integrals can also be extended to these cases and obtain $\varepsilon$-factorized differential equations for all sectors. The letters are combinations of modular forms on the corresponding elliptic curves and algebraic functions arising from the sub-sectors. With uniform transcendental boundary conditions, we express our results in terms of iterated integrals order-by-order in the dimensional regulator, which can be evaluated efficiently. Our method can be straightforwardly generalized to other elliptic integral families and have important applications to precision physics at current and future high-energy colliders., Comment: Journal version. Add the Lambert series for the Y-invariant

We propose a novel method to determine the structure of symbols for any family of polylogarithmic Feynman integrals. Using the d log-bases and simple formulas for the leading order and next-to-leading contributions to the intersection numbers, we give a streamlined procedure to compute the entries in the coefficient matrices of canonical differential equations, including the symbol letters and the rational coefficients. We also provide a selection rule to decide whether a given matrix element must be zero. The symbol letters are deeply related to the poles of the integrands and also have interesting connections to the geometry of Newton polytopes. Our method can be applied to many cutting-edge multi-loop calculations. The simplicity of our results also hints at the possible underlying structure in perturbative quantum field theories., Comment: 12 pages, 1 figure, recieved version

In this paper, we explore the recursive structure of Baikov representations for Feynman integrals. We demonstrate that the various Baikov representations for all sectors of an integral family can be organized in a tree-like structure. Using this structure, we show that the symbol letters of one-loop Feynman integrals can be written in terms of minors of a matrix associated with the top sector. Non-trivial relations among these symbol letters can then be easily discovered using results from linear algebra., Comment: matched with published version, package BaikovAll.wl added in supplemental material

We present the calculation of the next-to-leading order (NLO) electroweak (EW) corrections proportional to the Higgs trilinear self-coupling ($\lambda_{HHH}$) for Higgs boson plus one jet production at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). We use the method of large top quark mass expansion to tackle the most challenging two-loop virtual amplitude, and apply the Pad\'{e} approximation to extend the region of convergence of the expansion. We find that the NLO EW corrections is $0.66\%$ for the total cross section. For the invariant mass distribution and Higgs boson transverse momentum distribution, the NLO corrections are almost flat with their values similar in size. Our results can be used to set extra constraints on $\lambda_{HHH}$ at the LHC., Comment: 9 pages, 5 figures, 2 tables

In this work, we extend the resummation for the thrust distribution in Higgs decays up to the fifth logarithmic order. We show that one needs the accurate values of the three-loop soft functions for reliable predictions in the back-to-back region. This is especially true in the gluon channel, where the soft function exhibits poor perturbative convergence., Comment: 31 pages, 6 figures, 3 tables

The method of canonical differential equations is an important tool in the calculation of Feynman integrals in quantum field theories. It has been realized that the canonical bases are closely related to $d$-dimensional $d\log$-form integrands. In this work, we introduce the concept of generalized loop-by-loop Baikov representation, and clarify its relation and difference with Feynman integrals using the language of intersection theory. We then utilize the generalized Baikov representation to construct $d$-dimensional $d\log$-form integrands, and discuss how to convert them to Feynman integrals. We describe the technical details of our method, in particular how to deal with the difficulties encountered in the construction procedure. Our method provides a constructive approach to the problem of finding canonical bases of Feynman integrals, and we demonstrate its applicability to complicated scattering amplitudes involving multiple physical scales., Comment: v2: published version in JHEP

The associated production of a Higgs boson and a top-quark pair is important for probing the Yukawa coupling of the top quark, and calls for better theoretical modeling. In this paper, we calculate the two-loop infrared divergences in $t\bar{t}H$ production at hadron colliders. To do that we compute the one-loop amplitudes to higher orders in the dimensional regulator $\epsilon$. Numeric results for the infrared poles are given as a reference at several representative phase-space points. The result in this work servers as a part of the ongoing efforts towards the $t\bar{t}H$ cross sections at the next-to-next-to-leading order., Comment: 31 pages, 1 figure

In this paper, we present the universal structure of the alphabet of one-loop Feynman integrals. The letters in the alphabet are calculated using the Baikov representation with cuts. We consider both convergent and divergent cut integrals and observe that letters in the divergent cases can be easily obtained from convergent cases by applying certain limits. The letters are written as simple expressions in terms of various Gram determinants. The knowledge of the alphabet enables us to easily construct the canonical differential equations of the $ d\log $ form and aids in bootstrapping the symbols of the solutions., Comment: 13 pages, 2 figures; v3: published version in Chinese physics C

We present FastGPL, a C++ library for the fast evaluation of generalized polylogarithms which appear in many multi-loop Feynman integrals. We implement the iterative algorithm proposed by Vollinga and Weinzierl in a two-step approach, i.e., we generate concise expressions using an external program and hard-code them into the numeric library. This allows efficient and accurate numeric evaluations of generalized polylogarithms suitable for Monte Carlo integration and event generation. Floating-point arithmetics are carefully taken care of to avoid loss of accuracy. As an application and demonstration, we calculate the two-loop corrections for Higgs boson production in the vector boson fusion channel at electron-positron colliders. FastGPL is expected to be useful for event generators at the next-to-next-to-leading order accuracy., Comment: 17 pages, 2 figures, 4 tables. Code is available at https://github.com/llyang/FastGPL

In this Letter, we present for the first time a calculation of the complete next-to-leading order corrections to the $gg \to ZH$ process. We use the method of small mass expansion to tackle the most challenging two-loop virtual amplitude, in which the top quark mass dependence is retained throughout the calculations. We show that our method provides reliable numeric results in all kinematic regions, and present phenomenological predictions for the total and differential cross sections at the Large Hadron Collider and its future upgrades. Our results are necessary ingredients towards reducing the theoretical uncertainties of the $pp \to ZH$ cross sections down to the percent-level, and provide important theoretical inputs for future precision experimental collider programs.

We consider the two-loop corrections to the $HW^+W^-$ vertex at order $\alpha\alpha_s$. We construct a canonical basis for the two-loop integrals using the Baikov representation and the intersection theory. By solving the $\epsilon$-form differential equations, we obtain fully analytic expressions for the master integrals in terms of multiple polylogarithms, which allow fast and accurate numeric evaluation for arbitrary configurations of external momenta. We apply our analytic results to the decay process $H \to \nu_e e W$, and study both the integrated and differential decay rates. Our results can also be applied to the Higgs production process via $W$ boson fusion., Comment: 18 pages, 3 figures, 2 tables; version accepted for publication in JHEP

We present a precise and efficient computation of the two-loop amplitudes entering the Higgs boson pair production process via gluon fusion. Our approach is based on the small-Higgs-mass expansion while keeping the full dependence on the top quark mass and other kinematic invariants. We compare our results to the up-to-date predictions based on a combination of sector decomposition and high-energy expansion. We find that our method provides precision numeric predictions in the entire phase space, while at the same time is highly efficient as the computation can be easily performed on a normal desktop or laptop computer. Our method is valuable for practical phenomenological studies of the Higgs boson pair production process, and can also be applied to other similar processes.

Canonical Feynman integrals are of great interest in the study of scattering amplitudes at the multi-loop level. We propose to construct $d\log$-form integrals of the hypergeometric type, treat them as a representation of Feynman integrals, and project them into master integrals using intersection theory. This provides a constructive way to build canonical master integrals whose differential equations can be solved easily. We use our method to investigate both the maximally cut integrals and the uncut ones at one and two loops, and demonstrate its applicability in problems with multiple scales., Comment: v2: journal version

We investigate top quark pair production near the threshold where the pair invariant mass $M_{t\bar{t}}$ approaches $2m_t$, which provides sensitive observables to extract the top quark mass $m_t$. Using the effective field theory methods, we derive a factorization and resummation formula for kinematic distributions in the threshold limit up to the next-to-leading power, which resums higher order Coulomb corrections to all orders in the strong coupling constant. Our formula is similar to those in the literature but differs in several important aspects. We apply our formula to the $M_{t\bar{t}}$ distribution, as well as to the double differential cross section with respect to $M_{t\bar{t}}$ and the rapidity of the $t\bar{t}$ pair. We find that the resummation effects significantly increase the cross sections near the threshold, and lead to predictions better compatible with experimental data than the fixed-order ones. We demonstrate that incorporating resummation effects in the top quark mass determination can shift the extracted value of $m_t$ by as large as 1.4 GeV. The shift is much larger than the estimated uncertainties in previous experimental studies, and leads to a value of the top quark pole mass more consistent with the current world average., Comment: 44 pages, 14 figures; comments are welcome; v2: journal version

We revisit the calculation of perturbative quark transverse momentum dependent parton distribution functions and fragmentation functions using the exponential regulator for rapidity divergences. We show that the exponential regulator provides a consistent framework for the calculation of various ingredients in transverse momentum dependent factorization. Compared to existing regulators in the literature, the exponential regulator has a couple of advantages which we explain in detail. As a result, the calculation is greatly simplified and we are able to obtain the next-to-next-to-leading order results up to $\mathcal{O}(\epsilon^2)$ in dimensional regularization. These terms are necessary for a higher order calculation which is made possible with the simplification brought by the new regulator. As a by-product, we have obtained the two-loop quark jet function for the Energy-Energy Correlator in the back-to-back limit, which is the last missing ingredient for its N$^3$LL resummation.

We investigate the invariant-mass distribution of top-quark pairs near the $2m_t$ threshold, which has strong impact on the determination of the top-quark mass $m_t$. We show that higher-order non-relativistic corrections lead to large contributions which are not included in the state-of-the-art theoretical predictions. We derive a factorization formula to resum such corrections to all orders in the strong-coupling, and calculate necessary ingredients to perform the resummation at next-to-leading power. We combine the resummation with fixed-order results and present phenomenologically relevant numeric results. We find that the resummation effect significantly enhances the differential cross section in the threshold region, and makes the theoretical prediction more compatible with experimental data. We estimate that using our prediction in the determination of $m_t$ will lead to a value closer to the result of direct measurement., Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures; v4: references added

We calculate analytically the two-loop triangle integrals entering the $\mathcal{O}(\alpha\alpha_s)$ corrections to the $HZV$ vertex with $V=Z^*,\gamma^*$ using the method of differential equations. Our result provides a prototype to study the analytic properties of multi-loop multi-scale Feynman integrals, and also allows fast numeric evaluation for phenomenological studies. We apply our results to the leptonic decay of the Higgs boson and to $ZH$ production at electron-positron colliders. Besides the top quark loop, we include also the bottom quark loop contributions, whose evaluation takes a lot of time using purely numeric methods, but is very efficient with our analytic results., Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures

In this paper, a combined resummation of soft and Coulomb corrections is performed for the associated production of the Higgs boson with a top quark pair at the LHC. We illustrate the similarities and critical differences between this process and the $t\bar{t}$ production process. We show that up to the next-to-leading power, the total cross section for $t\bar{t}h$ production admits a similar factorization formula in the threshold limit as that for $t\bar{t}$ production. This fact, however, is not expected to hold at higher powers. Based on the factorization formula, we perform the resummation at the improved next-to-leading logarithmic accuracy, and match to the next-to-leading order result. This allows us to give NLL$'$+NLO predictions for the total cross sections at the LHC. We find that the resummation effects enhance the NLO cross sections by about 6\%, and significantly reduce the scale dependence of the theoretical predictions.

We describe predictions for top-quark pair differential distributions at hadron colliders, which combine state-of-the-art NNLO QCD calculations and NLO electroweak corrections together with double resummation at NNLL$'$ accuracy of threshold logarithms and small-mass logarithms. This is the first time that such a combination has appeared in the literature. Numerical results are presented for the invariant-mass distribution, the transverse-momentum distribution as well as rapidity distributions., Comment: Contribution to the proceedings of the 11th International Workshop on Top Quark Physics (TOP2018); v3: significantly modified version with more numeric results

We present predictions for the thrust distribution in hadronic decays of the Higgs boson at the next-to-leading order and the approximate next-to-next-to-leading order. The approximate NNLO corrections are derived from a factorization formula in the soft/collinear phase-space regions. We find large corrections, especially for the gluon channel. The scale variations at the lowest orders tend to underestimate the genuine higher order contributions. The results of this paper is therefore necessary to control the perturbative uncertainties of the theoretical predictions. We also discuss on possible improvements to our results, such as a soft-gluon resummation for the 2-jets limit, and an exact next-to-next-to-leading order calculation for the multi-jets region.

We extend our framework for the simultaneous resummation of soft and small-mass logarithms to rapidity distributions in top quark pair production. We give numerical results for the rapidity distribution of the top quark or the anti-top quark, as well as the rapidity distribution of the $t\bar{t}$ pair, finding that resummation effects stabilize the dependence of the differential cross sections on the choice of factorization scale. We compare our results with recent measurements at the Large Hadron Collider and find good agreement. Our results may be useful in the extraction of the gluon parton distribution function from $t\bar{t}$ production., Comment: 16 pages, 6 figures, 1 table

We propose that loop integrals with internal heavy particles can be evaluated by expanding in the limit of small external masses. This provides a systematically improvable approximation to the integrals in the entire phase space, and works particularly well for the high energy tails of kinematic distributions (where the usual $1/M$ expansions cease to be valid). We demonstrate our method using Higgs boson pair production as an example. We find that at both one-loop and two-loop, our method provides good approximations to the integrals appearing in the scattering amplitudes. Comparing to existing expansion methods, our method are not restricted to a special phase space region. Combining our efficient method to compute the two-loop amplitude with an infrared subtraction method for the real emission corrections, we expect to have a fast and reliable tool to calculate the differential cross sections for Higgs boson pair production. This will be useful for phenomenological studies and for the extraction of the Higgs self-coupling from future experimental data. Our method can also be applied to other processes, such as the associated production of the Higgs boson with a jet or a $Z$ boson., Comment: v2: minor revisions

We present the first calculation of the next-to-next-to-leading order threshold soft function for top quark pair production at hadron colliders, with full velocity dependence of the massive top quarks. Our results are fully analytic, and can be entirely written in terms of generalized polylogarithms. The scale-dependence of our result coincides with the well-known two-loop anomalous dimension matrix including the three-parton correlations, which at the two-loop order only appear when more than one massive partons are involved in the scattering process. In the boosted limit, our result exhibits the expected factorization property of mass logarithms, which leads to a consistent extraction of the soft fragmentation function. The next-to-next-to-leading order soft function obtained in this paper is an important ingredient for threshold resummation at the next-to-next-to-next-to-leading logarithmic accuracy., Comment: 34 pages, 9 figures; v2: added references, matches the published version

We construct predictions for top quark pair differential distributions at hadron colliders that combine state-of-the-art NNLO QCD calculations with double resummation at NNLL' accuracy of threshold logarithms arising from soft gluon emissions and of small mass logarithms. This is the first time a resummed calculation at full NNLO+NNLL' accuracy in QCD for a process with non-trivial color structure has been completed at the differential level. Of main interest to us is the stability of the M_{tt} and top-quark p_T distributions in the boosted regime where fixed order calculations may become strongly dependent on the choice of dynamic scales. With the help of numeric and analytic arguments we confirm that the choice for the factorization and renormalization scales advocated recently by some of the authors is indeed optimal. We further derive a set of optimized kinematics-dependent scales for the matching functions which appear in the resummed calculations. Our NNLO+NNLL' prediction for the top-pair invariant mass is significantly less sensitive to the choice of factorization scale than the fixed order prediction, even at NNLO. Notably, the resummed and fixed order calculations are in nearly perfect agreement with each other in the full M_{tt} range when the optimal dynamic scale is used. For the top-quark p_T distribution the resummation performed here has less of an impact and instead we find that upgrading the matching with fixed-order from NLO+NNLL' to NNLO+NNLL' to be an important effect, a point to be kept in mind when using NLO-based Monte Carlo event generators to calculate this distribution., Comment: 45 pages, 12 figures, 2 tables. Updated formatting and included a new appendix. Matches journal version

We study the resummation of soft gluon emission corrections to the production of a top-antitop pair in association with a Higgs boson at the Large Hadron Collider. Starting from a soft-gluon resummation formula derived in previous work, we develop a bespoke parton-level Monte Carlo program which can be used to calculate the total cross section along with differential distributions. We use this tool to study the phenomenological impact of the resummation to next-to-next-to-leading logarithmic (NNLL) accuracy, finding that these corrections increase the total cross section and the differential distributions with respect to NLO calculations of the same observables., Comment: 26 pages, 9 figures. A few typos and an incorrect reference were fixed

Since the discovery of the Higgs boson at the Large Hadron Collider, a future electron-position collider has been proposed for precisely studying its properties. We investigate the production of the Higgs boson at such an $e^+e^-$ collider associated with a $Z$ boson, and calculate for the first time the mixed QCD-electroweak corrections to the total cross sections. We provide an approximate analytic formula for the cross section and show that it reproduces the exact numeric results rather well for collider energies up to 350 GeV. We also provide numeric results for $\sqrt{s}=500$ GeV, where the approximate formula is no longer valid. We find that the $\mathcal{O}(\alpha\alpha_s)$ corrections amount to a 1.3% increase of the cross section for a center-of-mass energy around 240 GeV. This is significantly larger than the expected experimental accuracy and has to be included for extracting the properties of the Higgs boson from the measurements of the cross sections in the future., Comment: Version published in Phys.Rev.D

We present state of the art resummation predictions for differential cross sections in top-quark pair production at the LHC. They are derived from a formalism which allows the simultaneous resummation of both soft and small-mass logarithms, which endanger the convergence of fixed-order perturbative series in the boosted regime, where the partonic center-of-mass energy is much larger than the mass to the top quark. We combine such a double resummation at NNLL$'$ accuracy with standard soft-gluon resummation at NNLL accuracy and with NLO calculations, so that our results are applicable throughout the whole phase space. We find that the resummation effects on the differential distributions are significant, bringing theoretical predictions into better agreement with experimental data compared to fixed-order calculations. Moreover, such effects are not well described by the NNLO approximation of the resummation formula, especially in the high-energy tails of the distributions, highlighting the importance of all-orders resummation in dedicated studies of boosted top production., Comment: 5 pages, 5 figures; minor notational changes

We consider the possibility that the recently observed excess in the diphoton invariant mass spectrum around 750 GeV is due to two narrow scalars. We demonstrate that there is no need to introduce invisible decay modes to enlarge the widths as long as the two scalars exhibit an appropriate mass splitting. Nevertheless we investigate the possible connection of these two scalars to the dark matter in a toy model with a Majorana fermionic dark matter candidate. We explore how large the widths of the two scalar widths could be taking into account various constraints from collider and dark matter experiments. Introducing two scalars alleviates the tension between the diphoton production and dark matter constraints., Comment: to appear in PRD

We present new results for QCD corrections to the top-pair invariant mass and top-quark $p_T$ distributions in boosted top-quark pair production at hadron colliders. They are derived from a formalism which allows the joint resummation of soft and small-mass logarithms at NNLL$'$ order, thus taking into account all potentially large corrections in the boosted regime, where the partonic center-of-mass energy is parameterically much larger than the mass of the top quark. We match these results with those from standard soft-gluon resummation away from the small-mass limit to NNLL order and also with NLO fixed-order calculations, so that our results are valid in the maximum possible range of phase space. The resummation effects on the $p_T$ and top-pair invariant mass distributions are significant, bringing theory predictions into better agreement with experimental data compared to pure NLO calculations., Comment: 7 pages, 1 figure, Talk given at TOP 2015, 8th International Workshop on Top Quark Physics, 14-18 September 2015, Ischia, Italy

We consider soft gluon emission corrections to the production of a top-antitop pair in association with a Higgs boson at hadron colliders. In particular, we present a soft-gluon resummation formula for this production process and gather all elements needed to evaluate it at next-to-next-to-leading logarithmic order. We employ these results to obtain approximate next-to-next-to-leading order (NNLO) formulas, and implement them in a bespoke parton-level Monte Carlo program which can be used to calculate the total cross section along with arbitrary differential distributions. We use this tool to study the phenomenological impact of the approximate NNLO corrections, finding that they increase the total cross section and the differential distributions which we evaluated in this work., Comment: 35 pages, 5 tables and 12 figures. Version published in JHEP 1603 (2016) 124

We derive the constraints that can be imposed on the dimension-6 effective theory extension of the Standard Model, using gluon fusion-initiated Higgs boson pair production at the LHC. We use a realistic analysis focussing on the $hh \rightarrow (b\bar{b}) ( \tau^+ \tau^- )$ final state, including initial-state radiation and non-perturbative effects. We include the statistical uncertainties on the signal rates as well as conservative estimates of the theoretical uncertainties. We first consider a theory containing only modifications of the trilinear coupling, through a $c_6 \lambda\, H^6/ v^2$ Lagrangian term, and then examine the full parameter space of the effective theory, incorporating current bounds obtained through single Higgs boson measurements. We also consider an alternative scenario, where we vary a smaller sub-set of parameters. Allowing, finally, the values of the other coefficients to vary within \textit{projected} experimental ranges, we find that the currently unbounded parameter, $c_6$, could be constrained to lie within $|c_6| \lesssim 0.6$ at 1$\sigma$ confidence, at the end of the high-luminosity run of the LHC (14~TeV) in the full model, and to $-0.6 \lesssim c_6 \lesssim 0.5$ in the alternative model. This study constitutes a first step towards the inclusion of multi-Higgs boson production in a full fit to the dimension-6 effective field theory framework., Comment: 34 pages, 11 figures. Matches Journal version

We update the theoretical precision of the total cross section for direct top quark production at the LHC by extending the threshold resummation to the next-to-next-to-leading logarithmic accuracy., Comment: 17 pages, 5 figures, version published in JHEP. v3: two plots in Fig.1 replaced, with nothing else changed

We review a Soft Collinear Effective Theory approach to the study of factorization and resummation of QCD effects in top-quark pair production. In particular, we consider differential cross sections such as the top-quark pair invariant mass distribution and the top-quark transverse momentum and rapidity distributions. Furthermore, we focus our attention on the large invariant mass and large transverse momentum kinematic regions, characteristic of boosted top quarks. We discuss the factorization of the differential cross section in the double soft gluon emission and small top-quark mass limit, both in Pair Invariant Mass (PIM) and One Particle Inclusive (1PI) kinematics. The factorization formulas can be employed in order to implement the simultaneous resummation of soft emission and small mass effects up to next-to-next-to-leading logarithmic accuracy. The results are also used to construct improved next-to-next-to-leading order approximations for the differential cross sections., Comment: 6 pages. Proceedings of the Second Annual Conference on Large Hadron Collider Physics (LHCP 2014), Columbia University, New York, June 2-7, 2014

We describe the perturbative calculation of the transverse parton distribution functions in all partonic channels up to next-to-next-to-leading order based on a gauge invariant operator definition. We demonstrate the cancellation of light-cone divergences and show that universal process-independent transverse parton distribution functions can be obtained through a refactorization. Our results serve as the first explicit higher-order calculation of these functions starting from first principles, and can be used to perform next-to-next-to-next-to-leading logarithmic $q_T$ resummation for a large class of processes at hadron colliders., Comment: 34 pages, 2 figures, FORM file of results included to source; fixed a typo in I_{q/q}^{(2)}

We present a perturbative calculation of the transverse parton distribution functions in all partonic channels up to next-to-next-to-leading order based on a gauge invariant operator definition. We demonstrate for the first time that such a definition works beyond the first non-trivial order. We extract the coefficient functions relevant for a next-to-next-to-next-to-leading logarithmic $q_T$ resummation in a large class of processes at hadron colliders., Comment: 10 pages, 1 figure, presented at the 11th International Symposium on Radiative Corrections, RADCOR 2013, 22.-27. September 2013, Lumley Castle, Durham, UK

If supersymmetry near the TeV scale is realized in Nature, the pair production of scalar top squarks is expected to be observable at the Large Hadron Collider. Recently, effective field-theory methods were employed to obtain approximate predictions for the cross section for this process, which include soft-gluon emission effects up to next-to-next-to-leading order (NNLO) in perturbation theory. In this work we employ the same techniques to resum soft-gluon emission effects to all orders in perturbation theory and with next-to-next-to-logarithmic (NNLL) accuracy. We analyze the effects of NNLL resummation on the stop-pair production cross section by obtaining NLO+NNLL predictions in pair invariant mass and one-particle inclusive kinematics. We compare the results of these calculations to the approximate NNLO predictions for the cross sections., Comment: 25 pages, 6 figures

We study single-particle inclusive (1PI) distributions in top-quark pair production at hadron colliders, working in the highly boosted regime where the top-quark p_T is much larger than its mass. In particular, we derive a novel factorization formula valid in the small-mass and soft limits of the differential partonic cross section. This provides a framework for the simultaneous resummation of soft gluon corrections and small-mass logarithms, and also an efficient means of obtaining higher-order corrections to the differential cross section in this limit. The result involves five distinct one-scale functions, three of which arise through the subfactorization of soft real radiation in the small-mass limit. We list the NNLO corrections to each of these functions, building on results in the literature by performing a new calculation of a soft function involving four light-like Wilson lines to this order. We thus obtain a nearly complete description of the small-mass limit of the differential partonic cross section at NNLO near threshold, missing only terms involving closed top-quark loops in the virtual corrections., Comment: 36 pages

We consider the ratio between the double and single Higgs production cross sections and examine the prospect of measuring the trilinear Higgs self-coupling using this observable. Such a ratio has a reduced theoretical (scale) uncertainty than the double Higgs cross section. We find that with 600/fb, the 14 TeV LHC can constraint the trilinear Higgs self coupling to be positive, and with 3000/fb one could measure it with a +30 % {-20 %}) accuracy., Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, to appear in the proceedings of the 25th "Rencontres de Blois", Blois, France, May 27-31, 2013

We investigate the transverse momentum resummation for top quark pair production at hadron colliders using the soft-collinear effective theory and the heavy-quark effective theory. We derive the factorization formula for $t\bar{t}$ production at small pair transverse momentum, and show in detail the procedure for calculating the key ingredient of the factorization formula: the next-to-leading order soft functions. We compare our numerical results with experimental data and find that they are consistent within theoretical and experimental uncertainties. To verify the correctness of our resummation formula, we expand it to the next-to-leading order and the next-to-next-to-leading order, and compare those expressions with the exact fixed-order results numerically. Finally, using the results of transverse momentum resummation, we discuss the transverse-momentum-dependent forward-backward asymmetry at the Tevatron., Comment: 39 pages, 7 figures, 1 table; final version in PRD

We obtain a soft plus virtual approximation to the NNLO QCD contributions to the top-pair invariant mass distribution at hadron colliders. It is valid up to corrections of order m_t^2/M^2, with M the pair invariant mass. This is currently the most complete QCD calculation for a differential cross section in top-quark pair production, and is useful for describing the high invariant mass region characteristic of boosted top quarks. We use our results to construct an improved NNLO approximation for the pair invariant mass distribution and compare it with previous, less complete approximations based on logarithmic terms from NNLL soft-gluon resummation alone. We find that the new NNLO approximation produces moderate enhancements of the differential cross section compared to previous ones, the effect being slightly more important at low values of invariant mass than at high ones. On the other hand, at high values of invariant mass the new NNLO corrections are dominated by even higher-order effects included in NNLL soft-gluon resummation, reaffirming the need for resummation in describing the highly boosted regime., Comment: 23 pages, 5 tables, 1 figure; version published in JHEP

If the minimal supersymmetric standard model at scales of around 1 TeV is realized in nature, the total top-squark pair production cross section should be measurable at the CERN Large Hadron Collider. In this work we present precise predictions for this observable, which are based upon approximate NNLO formulas obtained using soft-collinear effective theory methods., Comment: 36 pages, 7 figures and 11 tables. Version published in JHEP 1307 (2013) 042