The transverse-momentum subtraction method at N3^3LO applied to Higgs boson production at the LHC

We consider the extension of the transverse-momentum ($q_T$) subtraction method at next-to-next-to-next-to-leading order (N$^3$LO) in perturbative QCD. While all the $q_T$-subtraction ingredients at $q_T \neq 0$ are known in analytical form, the third-order collinear functions and helicity-flip functions, which contribute only at $q_T=0$, are approximated using a prescription which uses the known result for the total Higgs boson cross section at this order. As a first application of the third-order $q_T$-subtraction method, we present the N$^3$LO rapidity distribution of the Higgs boson at the LHC.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figure, contribution to the 2019 QCD session of the 54th Rencontres de Moriond. Based on arXiv:1807.1150

NNLO QCD results for diphoton production at the LHC and the Tevatron

We consider direct diphoton production in hadron collisions. We compute the next-to-next-to-leading order (NNLO) QCD radiative corrections at the fully-differential level. Our calculation is based on the q_T subtraction formalism and it is implemented in a parton level Monte Carlo program, which allows the user to apply arbitrary kinematical cuts on the final-state photons and the associated jet activity, and to compute the corresponding distributions in the form of bin histograms. We present selected numerical results related to Higgs boson searches and diphoton studies performed at the LHC and the Tevatron, and we show how the NNLO corrections to diphoton production are relevant to understand the main background of the decay channel (H -> gamma gamma) of the Higgs boson H.Comment: 8 pages, 3 figures. Contribution to the proceedings of the XXVII Rencontres de Physique de la Vall\'ee d'Aoste. arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:1209.3143, arXiv:1207.325

Diphoton isolation studies

We consider the effects of the photon isolation on the production of a pair of photons in hadron collisions. We study in detail advantages and disadvantages of the standard and smooth cone isolation criteria, concerning the theory and the experiment. We put special interest in those kinematic configurations related to recent Higgs boson studies and searches, and finally we show the set of isolation parameters proposed by the Les Houches accord 2013, which serves as a guide to understand the comparison of the theoretical predictions with the data.Comment: 8 pages, 7 figures. Contribution to the Proceedings of the ICHEP 2014 Conference. Accepted in Nuclear and Particle Physics Proceeding

Diphoton production at hadron colliders: transverse-momentum resummation at next-to-next-to-leading logarithmic accuracy

We consider the transverse-momentum (qT) distribution of a diphoton pair produced in hadron collisions. At small values of qT , we resum the logarithmically-enhanced perturbative QCD contributions up to next-to-next-to-leading logarithmic accuracy. At intermediate and large values of qT, we consistently combine resummation with the known next-to-leading order perturbative result. All perturbative terms up to order \alpha_S^2 are included in our computation which, after integration over qT, reproduces the known next-to-next-to-leading order result for the diphoton pair production total cross section. We present a comparison with LHC data and an estimate of the perturbative accuracy of the theoretical calculation by performing the corresponding variation of scales. In general we observe that the effect of the resummation is not only to recover the predictivity of the calculation at small transverse momentum, but also to improve substantially the agreement with the experimental data.Comment: 17 pages, 16 figures. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1007.235

Master Integrals for double real radiation emission in heavy-to-light quark decay

We evaluate analytically the master integrals for double real radiation emission in the b --> u W* decay, where b and u are a massive and massless quark, respectively, while W* is an off-shell charged weak boson. Since the W boson can subsequently decay in a lepton anti-neutrino pair, the results of the present paper constitute a further step toward a fully analytic computation of differential distributions for the semileptonic decay of a b quark at NNLO in QCD. The latter partonic process plays a crucial role in the study of inclusive semileptonic charmless decays of B mesons. Our results are expressed in terms of multiple polylogarithms of maximum weight four.Comment: 21 pages, 6 figures, 2 table

Combining QED and QCD transverse-momentum resummation for Z boson production at hadron colliders

We consider the transverse-momentum ($q_T$) distribution of $Z$ bosons produced in hadronic collisions. At small values of $q_T$, we perform the analytic resummation of the logarithmically enhanced QED contributions up to next-to-leading logarithmic accuracy, including the mixed QCD-QED contributions at leading logarithmic accuracy. Resummed results are consistently matched with the next-to-leading fixed-order results (i.e. $\mathcal{O}(\alpha^2)$) at small, intermediate and large values of $q_T$. We combine the QED corrections with the known QCD results at next-to-next-to-leading order ($\mathcal{O}(\alpha_S^2)$) and next-to-next-to-leading logarithmic accuracy. We show numerical results at LHC and Tevatron energies, studying the impact of the QED corrections and providing an estimate of the corresponding perturbative uncertainty. Our analytic results for the combined QED and QCD resummation, obtained through an extension of the $q_T$ resummation formalism in QCD, are valid for the production of generic neutral and colourless high-mass systems in hadronic collision.Comment: 13 pages, 3 figure