In this contribution we present recent progress in the computation of next-to-leading order (NLO) QCD corrections for the production of an electroweak vector boson in association with jets at hadron colliders. We focus on results obtained using the virtual matrix element library BLACKHAT in conjunction with SHERPA, focusing on results relevant to understanding the background to top production.
After reviewing the main features of the GoSam framework for automated one-loop calculations, we present a selection of recent phenomenological results obtained with it. In particular, we focus on the recent calculation of NLO QCD corrections to the production of a Higgs boson in conjunction with jets at the LHC.
We discuss results for di-boson plus two jets production processes at the LHC at NLO QCD. Issues related to the scale choice are reviewed. We focus on the distributions of the invariant mass and rapidity separation of the two hardest jets and show, for $W^pm gamma jj$ and $Zgamma jj$ production, how the contribution from the radiative decays of the massive gauge bosons can be significantly reduced.
We review recent NLO QCD results for W,Z + 3-jet production at hadron colliders, computed using BlackHat and SHERPA. We also include some new results for Z + 3-jet production at the LHC at 7 TeV. We report new progress towards the NLO cross section for W + 4-jet production. In particular, we show that the virtual matrix elements produced by BlackHat are numerically stable. We also show that with an improved integrator and tree-level matrix elements from BlackHat, SHERPA produces well-behaved real-emission contributions. As an illustration, we present the real-emission contributions -- including dipole-subtraction terms -- to the p_T distribution of the fourth jet, for a single subprocess with the maximum number of gluons.
We report on the calculation of the cross section for Higgs boson production in association with three jets via gluon fusion, at next-to-leading-order (NLO) accuracy in QCD, in the infinite top-mass approximation. After including the complete NLO QCD corrections, we observe a strong reduction in the scale dependence of the result, and an increased steepness in the transverse momentum distributions of both the Higgs and the leading jets. The results are obtained with the combined use of GoSam, Sherpa, and the MadDipole/MadEvent framework.
Up to now, the existence of intrinsic (or valence-like) heavy quark component of the proton distribution functions has not yet been confirmed or rejected. The LHC with pp-collisions at $sqrt{s}$ = 7-13 TeV can supply us with extra unique information concerning this hypothesis. On the basis of our theoretical studies, it is demonstrated that investigations of the intrinsic heavy quark contributions look very promising in processes like $pp rightarrow Z/W + c(b) + X$. A ratio of $Z+$ heavy jets over $W+$ heavy jets differential cross section as a function of the leading jet transverse momentum is proposed to maximize the sensitivity to the intrinsic charm component of the proton.