Fully Differential Vector-Boson-Fusion Higgs Production at Next-to-Next-to-Leading Order

Abstract

We calculate the fully differential next-to-next-to-leading-order (NNLO) corrections to vector-boson fusion (VBF) Higgs boson production at proton colliders, in the limit in which there is no cross talk between the hadronic systems associated with the two protons. We achieve this using a new "projection-to-Born" method that combines an inclusive NNLO calculation in the structure-function approach and a suitably factorized next-to-leading-order VBF Higgs plus three-jet calculation, using appropriate Higgs plus two-parton counterevents. An earlier calculation of the fully inclusive cross section had found small NNLO corrections, at the 1% level. In contrast, the cross section after typical experimental VBF cuts receives NNLO contributions of about (5-6)%, while differential distributions show corrections of up to (10-12)% for some standard observables. The corrections are often outside the next-to-leading-order scale-uncertainty band.

Zγ production in vector-boson scattering at next-to-leading order QCD

“…As was found for VBF Higgs production, cross sections and various distributions within VBF cuts are lowered by another 5 to 10% by NNLO corrections as compared to NLO results [25]. This effect is due to a wider energy flow within NNLO quark jets as compared to the NLO approximation: the narrow R = 0.4 jets capture less of the jet energy at NNLO and thus have a harder time passing the m jj > 600 GeV requirement [26].…”

Constraints on the trilinear Higgs coupling from vector boson fusion and associated Higgs production at the LHC

“…With all the non-vanishing coefficients w mn at hand it is now rather straightforward to calculate NNLO QCD corrections to the inclusive [49,50] and exclusive [51] VBF Higgs cross section. 3 Our computations rely on the techniques and the Monte Carlo (MC) codes developed in the latter work.…”

Automatic predictions in the Georgi-Machacek model at next-to-leading order accuracy

“…In the SM, VBF production has been calculated to a rather high level of accuracy: QCD corrections are known up to next-to-next-to-leading order (NNLO) for the total cross section [43,66,68] and for differential observables at the parton level [69][70][71]. The QCD corrections to the fully inclusive cross sections are fairly moderate, at the level of a few percent.…”