We report on our recent work on electroweak corrections to $tbar{t}$ production at hadron colliders. Specifically, we discuss the weak-interaction contributions to the top quark transverse momentum and $t bar{t}$ invariant mass distributions and an induced parity-violating top-spin asymmetry.
Results for the complete NLO electroweak corrections to Standard Model Higgs production via gluon fusion are included in the total cross section for hadronic collisions. Artificially large threshold effects are avoided working in the complex-mass scheme. The numerical impact at LHC (Tevatron) energies is explored for Higgs mass values up to 500 GeV (200 GeV). Assuming a complete factorization of the electroweak corrections, one finds a +5 % shift with respect to the NNLO QCD cross section for a Higgs mass of 120 GeV both at the LHC and the Tevatron. Adopting two different factorization schemes for the electroweak effects, an estimate of the corresponding total theoretical uncertainty is computed.
A fully differential calculation of the next-to-leading order QCD corrections to the production of Z-boson pairs in association with a hard jet at the Tevatron and LHC is presented. This process is an important background for Higgs particle and new physics searches at hadron colliders. We find sizable corrections for cross sections and differential distributions, particularly at the LHC. Residual scale uncertainties are typically at the 10% level and can be further reduced by applying a veto against the emission of a second hard jet. Our results confirm that NLO corrections do not simply rescale LO predictions.
We report on the calculation of the next-to-leading order QCD corrections to the production of W-boson pairs in association with a hard jet at the Tevatron and the LHC, which is an important source of background for Higgs and new-physics searches. The corrections stabilize the leading-order prediction for the cross section considerably, in particular if a veto against the emission of a second hard jet is applied.
Since the W and Z discovery, hadron colliders have provided a fertile ground, in which continuously improving measurements and theoretical predictions allow to precisely determine the gauge boson properties, and to probe the dynamics of electroweak and strong interactions. This article will review, from a theoretical perspective, the role played by the study, at hadron colliders, of electroweak boson production properties, from the better understanding of the proton structure, to the discovery and studies of the top quark and of the Higgs, to the searches for new phenomena beyond the Standard Model.
We present an analytic computation of the two-loop QCD corrections to $ubar{d}to W^+bbar{b}$ for an on-shell $W$-boson using the leading colour and massless bottom quark approximations. We perform an integration-by-parts reduction of the unpolarised squared matrix element using finite field reconstruction techniques and identify an independent basis of special functions that allows an analytic subtraction of the infrared and ultraviolet poles. This basis is valid for all planar topologies for five-particle scattering with an off-shell leg.