NLO QCD corrections to pp -> t anti-t b anti-b + X at the LHC

We report on the calculation of the full next-to-leading order QCD corrections to the production of top anti-top bottom anti-bottom (ttbb) final states at the LHC, which deliver a serious background contribution to the production of a Higgs boson (decaying into a bottom anti-bottom pair) in association with a top anti-top pair. While the corrections significantly reduce the unphysical scale dependence of the leading-order cross section, our results predict an enhancement of the ttbb production cross section by a K-factor of about 1.8.Comment: 4 pages, LaTeX, 4 postscript figures. Reference added, minor modifications. Matches published versio

t \bar{t} W production and decay at NLO

We present results for the production of a top pair in association with a W-boson at next-to-leading order. We have implemented this process into the parton-level integrator MCFM including the decays of both the top quarks and the W-bosons with full spin correlations. Although the cross section for this process is small, it is a Standard Model source of same-sign lepton events that must be accounted for in many new physics searches. For a particular analysis of same-sign lepton events in which b-quarks are also present, we investigate the effect of the NLO corrections as a function of the signal region cuts.Comment: 10 pages, 7 figure

NLO QCD corrections to pp -> ttbb+X via quark anti-quark annihilation

The process pp -> top anti-top bottom anti-bottom + X represents a very important background reaction to searches at the LHC, in particular to top anti-top H production where the Higgs boson decays into a bottom anti-bottom pair. A successful analysis of top anti-top H at the LHC requires the knowledge of direct top anti-top bottom anti-bottom production at NLO in QCD. We take the first step in this direction upon calculating the NLO QCD corrections to the subprocess initiated by quark anti-quark annihilation.Comment: 6 pages, LaTeX, 4 postscript figures, to appear in proceedings of the "9th Workshop on Elementary Particle Theory: Loops and Legs in Quantum Field Theory", Sondershausen, Germany, April 20-25, 200

Four-fermion production at gamma gamma colliders: 2. Radiative corrections in double-pole approximation

The O(alpha) electroweak radiative corrections to gamma gamma --> WW --> 4f within the electroweak Standard Model are calculated in double-pole approximation (DPA). Virtual corrections are treated in DPA, leading to a classification into factorizable and non-factorizable contributions, and real-photonic corrections are based on complete lowest-order matrix elements for gamma gamma --> 4f + gamma. Soft and collinear singularities appearing in the virtual and real corrections are combined alternatively in two different ways, namely by using the dipole subtraction method or by applying phase-space slicing. The radiative corrections are implemented in a Monte Carlo generator called COFFERgammagamma, which optionally includes anomalous triple and quartic gauge-boson couplings in addition and performs a convolution over realistic spectra of the photon beams. A detailed survey of numerical results comprises O(alpha) corrections to integrated cross sections as well as to angular, energy, and invariant-mass distributions. Particular attention is paid to the issue of collinear-safety in the observables.Comment: 42 pages, latex, 34 postscript figure

The complex-mass scheme for perturbative calculations with unstable particles

Perturbative calculations with unstable particles require the inclusion of their finite decay widths. A convenient, universal scheme for this purpose is the complex-mass scheme. It fully respects gauge-invariance, is straight-forward to apply, and has been successfully used for the calculation of various tree-level processes and of the electroweak radiative corrections to e+ e- -> 4f and H -> 4f.Comment: 5 pages, LaTeX, to appear in the proceedings of the "8th DESY Workshop on Elementary Particle Theory, Loops and Legs in Quantum Field Theory", Eisenach, 200

NLO QCD calculations with HELAC-NLO

Achieving a precise description of multi-parton final states is crucial for many analyses at LHC. In this contribution we review the main features of the HELAC-NLO system for NLO QCD calculations. As a case study, NLO QCD corrections for tt + 2 jet production at LHC are illustrated and discussed.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures. Presented at 10th DESY Workshop on Elementary Particle Theory: Loops and Legs in Quantum Field Theory, Worlitz, Germany, April 25-30, 201

Electroweak corrections to Higgs-strahlung off W/Z bosons at the Tevatron and the LHC with HAWK

The associate production of Higgs bosons with W or Z bosons, known as Higgs-strahlung, is an important search channel for Higgs bosons at the hadron colliders Tevatron and LHC for low Higgs-boson masses. We refine a previous calculation of next-to-leading-order electroweak corrections (and recalculate the QCD corrections) upon including the leptonic decay of the W/Z bosons, thereby keeping the fully differential information of the 2-lepton + Higgs final state. The gauge invariance of the W/Z-resonance treatment is ensured by the use of the complex-mass scheme. The electroweak corrections, which are at the level of -(5-10)% for total cross sections, further increase in size with increasing transverse momenta p_T in differential cross sections. For instance, for p_T,H >~ 200GeV, which is the interesting range at the LHC, the electroweak corrections to WH production reach about -14% for M_H = 120GeV. The described corrections are implemented in the HAWK Monte Carlo program, which was initially designed for the vector-boson-fusion channel, and are discussed for various distributions in the production channels pp / p \bar p -> H + l nu_l / l^-l^+ / nu_l \bar nu_l + X.Comment: 22 p

Polarizing the Dipoles

We extend the massless dipole formalism of Catani and Seymour, as well as its massive version as developed by Catani, Dittmaier, Seymour and Trocsanyi, to arbitrary helicity eigenstates of the external partons. We modify the real radiation subtraction terms only, the primary aim being an improved efficiency of the numerical Monte Carlo integration of this contribution as part of a complete next-to-leading order calculation. In consequence, our extension is only applicable to unpolarized scattering. Upon summation over the helicities of the emitter pairs, our formulae trivially reduce to their original form. We implement our extension within the framework of Helac-Phegas, and give some examples of results pertinent to recent studies of backgrounds for the LHC. The code is publicly available. Since the integrated dipole contributions do not require any modifications, we do not discuss them, but they are implemented in the software.Comment: 20 pages, 4 figures, Integrated dipoles implemented for massless and massive case