Electroweak-correction effects in gauge-boson pair production at the LHC

We have studied the effect of one-loop logarithmic electroweak radiative corrections on WZ and $W\gamma$ production processes at the LHC. We present analytical results for the leading-logarithmic electroweak corrections to the corresponding partonic processes du -> WZ, Wgamma. Using the leading-pole approximation we implement these corrections into Monte Carlo programs for $pp\to l\nu_l l'\bar l', l\nu_l\gamma$. We find that electroweak corrections lower the predictions by 5-20% in the physically interesting region of large transverse momentum and small rapidity separation of the gauge bosons.Comment: 28 pages, LaTex, 13 eps figures included; references added and corrected typo

Electroweak corrections to W-boson pair production at the LHC

Vector-boson pair production ranks among the most important Standard-Model benchmark processes at the LHC, not only in view of on-going Higgs analyses. These processes may also help to gain a deeper understanding of the electroweak interaction in general, and to test the validity of the Standard Model at highest energies. In this work, the first calculation of the full one-loop electroweak corrections to on-shell W-boson pair production at hadron colliders is presented. We discuss the impact of the corrections on the total cross section as well as on relevant differential distributions. We observe that corrections due to photon-induced channels can be amazingly large at energies accessible at the LHC, while radiation of additional massive vector bosons does not influence the results significantly.Comment: 29 pages, 15 figures, 4 tables; some references and comments on \gamma\gamma -> WW added; matches version published in JHE

Radiative Corrections to γγ→ttˉ\gamma\gamma\to t \bar t in the Electroweak Standard Model

The cross-section for $\gamma\gamma\to t \bar t$ with arbitrary polarized photons is calculated within the electroweak Standard Model including the complete virtual and soft-photonic $O(\alpha)$ corrections. We present a detailed numerical discussion of the radiative corrections with particular emphasis on the purely weak corrections. These are usually of the order of 1--10\% for energies up to 1 TeV. For unpolarized or equally polarized photons they reach almost 10\% close to threshold. The large corrections cannot be traced back to a universal origin like the running of $\alpha$ or the $\rho$-parameter. Apart from the energy region around the Higgs resonance $(\gamma\gamma\to H^*\to t\bar t)$ the weak corrections are widely independent of the Higgs-boson mass.Comment: 22 pages, LaTeX (compressed, uuencoded), 20 figures as compressed uuencoded ps-files, complete ps-file available via anonymous ftp from ftp://ftp.physik.uni-wuerzburg.de/pub/preprint/WUE-ITP-95-017.p

QCD Corrections to Electroweak Annihilation Decays of Superheavy Quarkonia

QCD corrections to all the allowed decays of superheavy groundstate quarkonia into electroweak gauge and Higgs bosons are presented. For quick estimates, approximations that reproduce the exact results within less than at worst two percent are also given.Comment: 20 pages RevTeX, 9 figures. The complete paper, including figures, is also available via anonymous ftp at (129.13.102.139) as ftp://ttpux2.physik.uni-karlsruhe.de/ttp95-05/ttp95-05.ps, or via www at http://ttpux2.physik.uni-karlsruhe.de/cgi-bin/preprints

Of Higgs, Unitarity and other Questions

On the verge of conclusive checks on the Standard Model by the LHC, we discuss some of the basic assumptions. The reason for this analysis stems from a recent proposal of an Electroweak Model based on a nonlinearly realized gauge group SU(2) X U(1), where, in the perturbative approximation, there is no Higgs boson. The model enjoys the Slavnov-Taylor identities and therefore the perturbative unitarity. On the other hand, it is commonly believed that the existence of the Higgs boson is entangled with the property of unitarity, when high energy processes are considered. The argument is based mostly on the Froissart bound and on the Equivalence Theorem. In this talk we briefly review some of our objections on the validity of such arguments. Some open questions are pointed out, in particular on the limit of zero mass for the vector mesons and on the fate of the longitudinal polarizations.Comment: 23 pages, 1 figure, presented by Ruggero Ferrari at the International Conference "Gauge Fields. Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow" in honor of A.A. Slavnov. Moscow, January 19-24 201

Radiative Corrections to ZZ->ZZ in the Electroweak Standard Model

The cross-section for ZZ->ZZ with arbitrarily polarized Z bosons is calculated within the electroweak Standard Model including the complete O(alpha) corrections. We show the numerical importance of the radiative corrections and elaborate its characteristic features. The treatment of the Higgs-boson resonance is discussed in different schemes including the S-matrix-motivated pole scheme and the background-field method. The numerical accuracy of the equivalence theorem is investigated by comparing the cross-sections for purely longitudinal Z bosons obtained from the equivalence theorem and from the complete calculation. In this context the full O(alpha) corrections are also confronted with the enhanced corrections of O(alpha M_H^2/s_w^2 M_W^2), which were frequently used in the literature.Comment: 35 pages LaTeX, 19 postscript figures include

The Phenomenology of a Top Quark Seesaw Model

The top quark seesaw mechanism offers a method for constructing a composite Higgs field without the usual difficulties that accompany traditional technicolor or topcolor theories. The focus of this article is to study the phenomenology of the new physics required by this mechanism. After establishing a set of criteria for a plausible top quark seesaw theory, we develop two models, the first of which has a heavy weak singlet fermion with hypercharge 4/3 while the second has, in addition, a heavy weak singlet hypercharge -2/3 fermion. At low energies, these theories contain one or two Higgs doublets respectively. We then derive the low energy effective Higgs potential in detail for the two-doublet theory as well as study the likely experimental signatures for both theories. A strong constraint on the one-doublet model is the measured value of the rho parameter which permits the new heavy fermion to have a mass of about 5-7 TeV, when the Higgs has a mass greater than 300 GeV. In the two-doublet model, mixing of the new heavy Y=-2/3 fermion and the b quark affects the prediction for R_b. In order to agree with the current limits on R_b, the mass of this fermion should be at least 12 TeV. The mass of the heavy Y=4/3 fermion in the two-doublet model is not as sharply constrained by experiments and can be as light as 2.5 TeV.Comment: 33 pages, 12 figures, uses harvmac and picte

Dyson summation without violating Ward identities and the Goldstone-boson equivalence theorem

In contrast to the conventional treatment of gauge theories, in the background-field method the Ward identities for connected Green functions are not violated by Dyson summation of self-energies in finite orders of perturbation theory. Thus, Dyson summation does not spoil gauge cancelations at high energies which are ruled by the Goldstone-boson equivalence theorem. Moreover, in the background-field method the precise formulation of the equivalence theorem in higher orders (including questions of renormalization) is simplified rendering actual calculations easier. Finally, the equivalence theorem is also formulated for the Standard Model with a non-linearly realized scalar sector and for the gauged non-linear $\sigma$-model.Comment: 26 pages, latex, complete ps-file available via anonymous ftp from ftp://ftp.physik.uni-wuerzburg.de/pub/preprint/1996/WUE-ITP-96-002.ps, reference added and some comments on Ref.[6] modifie

NLO QCD corrections to off-shell top-antitop production with leptonic decays at hadron colliders

We present details of a calculation of the cross section for hadronic top-antitop production in next-to-leading order (NLO) QCD, including the decays of the top and antitop into bottom quarks and leptons. This calculation is based on matrix elements for \nu e e+ \mu- \bar{\nu}_{\mu}b\bar{b} production and includes all non-resonant diagrams, interferences, and off-shell effects of the top quarks. Such contributions are formally suppressed by the top-quark width and turn out to be small in the inclusive cross section. However, they can be strongly enhanced in exclusive observables that play an important role in Higgs and new-physics searches. Also non-resonant and off-shell effects due to the finite W-boson width are investigated in detail, but their impact is much smaller than naively expected. We also introduce a matching approach to improve NLO calculations involving intermediate unstable particles. Using a fixed QCD scale leads to perturbative instabilities in the high-energy tails of distributions, but an appropriate dynamical scale stabilises NLO predictions. Numerical results for the total cross section, several distributions, and asymmetries are presented for Tevatron and the LHC at 7 TeV, 8 TeV, and 14 TeV.Comment: 61 pp. Matches version published in JHEP; one more reference adde

Electroweak Sudakov Logarithms and Real Gauge-Boson Radiation in the TeV Region

Electroweak radiative corrections give rise to large negative, double-logarithmically enhanced corrections in the TeV region. These are partly compensated by real radiation and, moreover, affected by selecting isospin-noninvariant external states. We investigate the impact of real gauge boson radiation more quantitatively by considering different restricted final state configurations. We consider successively a massive abelian gauge theory, a spontaneously broken SU(2) theory and the electroweak Standard Model. We find that details of the choice of the phase space cuts, in particular whether a fraction of collinear and soft radiation is included, have a strong impact on the relative amount of real and virtual corrections.Comment: 20 pages, 4 figure