Next-to-leading order QCD corrections to tZtZ associated production via the flavor-changing neutral-current couplings at hadron colliders

We present the complete next-to-leading order (NLO) QCD corrections to $tZ$ associated production induced by the model-independent $tqg$ and $tqZ$ flavor-changing neutral-current couplings at hadron colliders, respectively. Our results show that, for the $tuZ$ coupling the NLO QCD corrections can enhance the total cross sections by about 60% and 42%, and for the $tcZ$ coupling by about 51% and 43% at the Tevatron and LHC, respectively. The NLO corrections, for the $tug$ couplings, can enhance the total cross sections by about 27%, and by about 42% for the $tcg$ coupling at the LHC. We also consider the mixing effects between the $tqg$ and $tqZ$ couplings for this process, which can either be large or small depending on the values of the anomalous couplings. Besides, the NLO corrections reduce the dependence of the total cross sections on the renormalization or factorization scale significantly, which lead to increased confidence on the theoretical predictions. And we also evaluate the NLO corrections to several important kinematic distributions.Comment: Published version in Phys. Rev.

Next-to-leading order QCD corrections to a heavy resonance production and decay into top quark pair at the LHC

We present a complete next-to-leading order (NLO) QCD calculation to a heavy resonance production and decay into a top quark pair at the LHC, where the resonance could be either a Randall-Sundrum (RS) Kaluza-Klein (KK) graviton $G$ or an extra gauge boson $Z'$. The complete NLO QCD corrections can enhance the total cross sections by about $80\%- 100\%$ and $20\%- 40\%$ for the $G$ and the $Z'$, respectively, depending on the resonance mass. We also explore in detail the NLO corrections to the polar angle distributions of the top quark, and our results show that the shapes of the NLO distributions can be different from the leading order (LO) ones for the KK graviton. Moreover, we study the NLO corrections to the spin correlations of the top quark pair production via the above process, and find that the corrections are small.Comment: Published version in PR

Top-Quark Decay at Next-to-Next-to-Leading Order in QCD

We present the complete calculation of the top-quark decay width at next-to-next-to-leading order in QCD, including next-to-leading electroweak corrections as well as finite bottom quark mass and $W$ boson width effects. In particular, we also show the first results of the fully differential decay rates for top-quark semileptonic decay $t\to W^+(l^+\nu)b$ at next-to-next-to-leading order in QCD. Our method is based on the understanding of the invariant mass distribution of the final-state jet in the singular limit from effective field theory. Our result can be used to study arbitrary infrared-safe observables of top-quark decay with the highest perturbative accuracy.Comment: 5 pages, 6 figures; version accepted for publication in Physical Review Letter

Next-to-leading order QCD corrections to the top quark associated with γ\gamma production via model-independent flavor-changing neutral-current couplings at hadron colliders

We present the complete next-to-leading order (NLO) QCD corrections to the top quark associated with $\gamma$ production induced by model-independent $tq\gamma$ and $tqg$ flavor-changing neutral-current (FCNC) couplings at hadron colliders, respectively. We also consider the mixing effects between the $tq\gamma$ and $tqg$ FCNC couplings for this process. Our results show that, for the $tq\gamma$ couplings, the NLO QCD corrections can enhance the total cross sections by about 50% and 40% at the Tevatron and LHC, respectively. Including the contributions from the $tq\gamma$, $tqg$ FCNC couplings and their mixing effects, the NLO QCD corrections can enhance the total cross sections by about 50% for the $tu\gamma$ and $tug$ FCNC couplings, and by about the 80% for the $tc\gamma$ and $tcg$ FCNC couplings at the LHC, respectively. Moreover, the NLO corrections reduce the dependence of the total cross section on the renormalization and factorization scale significantly. We also evaluate the NLO corrections for several important kinematic distributions.Comment: 25 pages, 16 figure

Precision QCD Event Shapes at Hadron Colliders: The Transverse Energy-Energy Correlator in the Back-to-Back Limit.

We present an operator-based factorization formula for the transverse energy-energy correlator (TEEC) hadron collider event shape in the back-to-back (dijet) limit. This factorization formula exhibits a remarkably symmetric form, being a projection onto a scattering plane of a more standard transverse momentum dependent factorization. Soft radiation is incorporated through a dijet soft function, which can be elegantly obtained to next-to-next-to-leading order (NNLO) due to the symmetries of the problem. We present numerical results for the TEEC resummed to next-to-next-to-leading logarithm (NNLL) matched to fixed order at the LHC. Our results constitute the first NNLL resummation for a dijet event shape observable at a hadron collider, and the first analytic result for a hadron collider dijet soft function at NNLO. We anticipate that the theoretical simplicity of the TEEC observable will make it indispensable for precision studies of QCD at the LHC, and as a playground for theoretical studies of factorization and its violation

Next-to-leading order QCD corrections to the single top quark production via model-independent t-q-g flavor-changing neutral-current couplings at hadron colliders

We present the calculations of the complete next-to-leading order (NLO) QCD effects on the single top productions induced by model-independent $tqg$ flavor-changing neutral-current couplings at hadron colliders. Our results show that, for the $tcg$ coupling the NLO QCD corrections can enhance the total cross sections by about 60% and 30%, and for the $tug$ coupling by about 50% and 20% at the Tevatron and LHC, respectively, which means that the NLO corrections can increase the experimental sensitivity to the FCNC couplings by about 10%$-$30%. Moreover, the NLO corrections reduce the dependence of the total cross sections on the renormalization or factorization scale significantly, which lead to increased confidence on the theoretical predictions. Besides, we also evaluate the NLO corrections to several important kinematic distributions, and find that for most of them the NLO corrections are almost the same and do not change the shape of the distributions.Comment: minor changes, version published in PR