A unified NLO description of top-pair and associated Wt production

We present an NLO simulation of WWbb production with massive b-quarks at the LHC. Off-shell and non-resonant contributions associated with top-pair and single-top channels and with leptonic W-boson decays are consistently taken into account using the complex-mass scheme. Thanks to the finite b-quark mass, WWbb predictions can be extended to the whole b-quark phase space, thereby including Wt-channel single-top contributions that originate from collinear g->bb splittings in the four-flavour scheme. This provides a consistent NLO description of tt and Wt production and decay, including quantum interference effects. The simulation is also applicable to exclusive 0- and 1-jet bins, which is of great importance for Higgs-boson studies in the H->WW channel and for any other analysis with large top backgrounds and jet vetoes or jet bins.Comment: 8pp. Minor revision, results unchange

W+W−W^+W^- production at hadron colliders in NNLO QCD

Charged gauge boson pair production at the Large Hadron Collider allows detailed probes of the fundamental structure of electroweak interactions. We present precise theoretical predictions for on-shell $W^+W^-$ production that include, for the first time, QCD effects up to next-to-next-to-leading order in perturbation theory. As compared to next-to-leading order, the inclusive $W^+W^-$ cross section is enhanced by 9% at 7 TeV and 12% at 14 TeV. The residual perturbative uncertainty is at the 3% level. The severe contamination of the $W^+W^-$ cross section due to top-quark resonances is discussed in detail. Comparing different definitions of top-free $W^+W^-$ production in the four and five flavour number schemes, we demonstrate that top-quark resonances can be separated from the inclusive $W^+W^-$ cross section without significant loss of theoretical precision.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figure

The second physical moment of the heavy quark vector correlator at O(alpha_s^3)

The second moment of the heavy quark vector correlator at O(alpha_s^3) is presented. The implications of this result on recent determinations of the charm and bottom quark mass are discussed.Comment: 9 pages, physics discussion extende

Low energy moments of heavy quark current correlators at four loops

We describe several techniques for the calculation of multi-loop integrals and their application to heavy quark current correlators. As new results, we present the four-loop correction to the second and third physical moment in the low-energy expansions of vector, axial-vector and scalar quark current correlators. Using a Ward identity, we obtain the third and fourth moment for the pseudo-scalar correlator. We briefly discuss the impact of these results on the determination of the charm quark mass and the strong coupling constant using lattice simulations for the current correlators and of the charm- and bottom-quark mass from experimental data for \sigma(e^+ e^- -> hadrons).Comment: 21 page

Automatic one-loop calculations with Sherpa+OpenLoops

We report on the OpenLoops generator for one-loop matrix elements and its application to four-lepton production in association with up to one jet. The open loops algorithm uses a numerical recursion to construct the numerator of one-loop Feynman diagrams as functions of the loop momentum. In combination with tensor integrals this results in a highly efficient and numerically stable matrix element generator. In order to obtain a fully automated setup for the simulation of next-to-leading order scattering processes we interfaced OpenLoops to the Sherpa Monte Carlo event generator

Higher Moments of Heavy Quark Correlators in the Low Energy Limit at O(alpha_s^2)

We present the first 30 moments of the low energy expansions of the vector, axial-vector, scalar and pseudo-scalar heavy quark correlation functions at three-loop order, including the singlet contribution which appears for the first time at three loops. In addition we compare the behavior of the moments for large n with the prediction from threshold calculations.Comment: 32 pages, 7 figure

Precise Charm- and Bottom-Quark Masses: Theoretical and Experimental Uncertainties

Recent theoretical and experimental improvements in the determination of charm and bottom quark masses are discussed. A new and improved evaluation of the contribution from the gluon condensate $$ to the charm mass determination and a detailed study of potential uncertainties in the continuum cross section for $b\bar b$ production is presented, together with a study of the parametric uncertainty from the $\alpha_s$-dependence of our results. The final results, $m_c(3 \text{GeV})=986(13)$MeV and $m_b(m_b)=4163(16)$MeV, represent, together with a closely related lattice determination $m_c(3\;{\rm GeV})=986(6)$MeV, the presently most precise determinations of these two fundamental Standard Model parameters. A critical analysis of the theoretical and experimental uncertainties is presented.Comment: 12 pages, presented at Quarks~2010, 16th International Seminar of High Energy Physics, Kolomna, Russia, June 6-12, 2010; v2: references adde

Standard and epsilon-finite Master Integrals for the rho-Parameter

We have constructed an epsilon-finite basis of master integrals for all new types of one-scale tadpoles which appear in the calculation of the four-loop QCD corrections to the electroweak rho-parameter. Using transformation rules from the epsilon-finite basis to the standard minimal-number-of-lines basis, we obtain as a by-product analytical expressions for few leading terms of the epsilon-expansion of all members of the standard basis. The new master integrals have been computed with the help of the Pade method and by use of difference equations independently.Comment: 26 page

Les Houches 2015: Physics at TeV Colliders Standard Model Working Group Report

This Report summarizes the proceedings of the 2015 Les Houches workshop on Physics at TeV Colliders. Session 1 dealt with (I) new developments relevant for high precision Standard Model calculations, (II) the new PDF4LHC parton distributions, (III) issues in the theoretical description of the production of Standard Model Higgs bosons and how to relate experimental measurements, (IV) a host of phenomenological studies essential for comparing LHC data from Run I with theoretical predictions and projections for future measurements in Run II, and (V) new developments in Monte Carlo event generators.Comment: Proceedings of the Standard Model Working Group of the 2015 Les Houches Workshop, Physics at TeV Colliders, Les Houches 1-19 June 2015. 227 page