These lectures provide an introduction to Soft-Collinear Effective Theory. After discussing the expansion of Feynman diagrams around the high-energy limit, the effective Lagrangian is constructed, first for a scalar theory, then for QCD. The underlying concepts are illustrated with the Sudakov form factor, i.e. the quark vector form factor at large momentum transfer. We then apply the formalism in two examples: We perform soft gluon resummation as well as transverse-momentum resummation for the Drell-Yan process using renormalization group evolution in SCET, and we derive the infrared structure of n-point gauge theory amplitudes by relating them to effective theory operators. We conclude with an overview of the different applications of the effective theory.

Abstract:We update the constraints on two-Higgs-doublet models (2HDMs) focusing on the parameter space relevant to explain the present muon g − 2 anomaly, ∆a µ , in four different types of models, type I, II, "lepton specific" (or X) and "flipped" (or Y). We show that the strong constraints provided by the electroweak precision data on the mass of the pseudoscalar Higgs, whose contribution may account for ∆a µ , are evaded in regions where the charged scalar is degenerate with the heavy neutral one and the mixing angles α and β satisfy the Standard Model limit β − α ≈ π/2. We combine theoretical constraints from vacuum stability and perturbativity with direct and indirect bounds arising from collider and B physics. Possible future constraints from the electron g − 2 are also considered. If the 126 GeV resonance discovered at the LHC is interpreted as the light CP-even Higgs boson of the 2HDM, we find that only models of type X can satisfy all the considered theoretical and experimental constraints.

We resum the leading logarithms α n s ln 2n−1 (1 − z), n = 1, 2, . . . near the kinematic threshold z = Q 2 /ŝ → 1 of the Drell-Yan process at next-to-leading power in the expansion in (1 − z). The derivation of this result employs soft-collinear effective theory in position space and the anomalous dimensions of subleading-power soft functions, which are computed. Expansion of the resummed result leads to the leading logarithms at fixed loop order, in agreement with exact results at NLO and NNLO and predictions from the physical evolution kernel at N 3 LO and N 4 LO, and to new results at the five-loop order and beyond.

We present a factorization theorem valid near the kinematic threshold z = Q 2 /ŝ → 1 of the partonic Drell-Yan process qq → γ * + X for general subleading powers in the (1 − z) expansion. We then consider the specific case of next-to-leading power. We discuss the emergence of collinear functions, which are a key ingredient to factorization starting at next-to-leading power. We calculate the relevant collinear functions at O(α s ) by employing an operator matching equation and we compare our results to the expansion-byregions computation up to the next-to-next-to-leading order, finding agreement. Factorization holds only before the dimensional regulator is removed, due to a divergent convolution when the collinear and soft functions are first expanded around d = 4 before the convolution is performed. This demonstrates an issue for threshold resummation beyond the leading-logarithmic accuracy at next-to-leading power.

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 softgluon 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.

This work studies the associated production of a top-quark pair with a W , Z, or Higgs boson at the LHC. Predictions for the total cross sections as well as for several differential distributions of the massive particles in the final state are provided. These predictions, valid for the LHC operating at 13 TeV, include without any approximation all the NLO electroweak and QCD contributions of O(α i s α j+1 ) with i + j = 2, 3. In addition, the predictions presented here improve upon the NLO QCD results by adding the effects of soft gluon emission corrections resummed to next-to-next-to-leading logarithmic accuracy. The residual dependence of the predictions on scale and PDF choices is analyzed.

Abstract: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.

We give an introduction to several regularization schemes that deal with ultraviolet and infrared singularities appearing in higher-order computations in quantum field theories. Comparing the computation of simple quantities in the various schemes, we point out similarities and differences between them.