ttˉbbˉt\bar{t}b\bar{b} hadroproduction with massive bottom quarks with PowHel

The associated production of top-antitop-bottom-antibottom quarks is a relevant irreducible background for Higgs boson analyses in the top-antitop-Higgs production channel, with Higgs decaying into a bottom-antibottom quark pair. We implement this process in the PowHel event generator, considering the bottom quarks as massive in all steps of the computation which involves hard-scattering matrix-elements in the 4-flavour number scheme combined with 4-flavour Parton Distribution Functions. Predictions with NLO QCD + Parton Shower accuracy, as obtained by PowHel + PYTHIA, are compared to those which resulted from a previous PowHel implementation with hard-scattering matrix-elements in the 5-flavour number scheme, considering as a baseline the example of a realistic analysis of top-antitop hadroproduction with additional $b$-jet activity, performed by the CMS collaboration at the Large Hadron Collider.Comment: 9 pages, 6 figure

Hadroproduction of W+W−bbˉW^+ W^- b \bar{b} at NLO accuracy matched with shower Monte Carlo programs

We present the computation of the differential cross section for the process $pp(\bar{p}) \to (W^+\,W^-\,b\,\bar{b} \to)\;e^+\,\nu_e\,\mu^-\,\bar{\nu}_\mu\,b\, \bar{b}+X$ at NLO QCD accuracy matched to Shower Monte Carlo (SMC) simulations using PowHel, on the basis of the interface between HELAC-NLO and POWHEG-BOX. We include all resonant and non-resonant contributions. This is achieved by fully taking into account the effect of off-shell t-quarks and off-shell W-bosons in the complex mass scheme. We also present a program called DECAYER that can be used to let the t-quarks present in the event files for $pp(\bar{p}) \to {t\,\bar{t}\,X}$ processes decay including both the finite width of the t-quarks and spin correlations. We present predictions for both the Tevatron and the LHC, with emphasis on differences emerging from three different $W^+\,W^-\,b\,\bar{b}$ hadroproduction computations: (i) full implementation of the $p\,p(\bar{p}) \to W^+\,W^-\,b\,\bar{b}$ process, (ii) generating on-shell t-quarks pushed off-shell with a Breit-Wigner finite width and decayed by DECAYER, and (iii) on-shell t-quark production followed by decay in the narrow width approximation, as described by the SMC.Comment: 40 pages, 26 figures; slightly expanded version matching the one published in JHE

A model for multifragmentation in heavy-ion reactions

From an experimental point of view, clear signatures of multifragmentation have been detected by different experiments. On the other hand, from a theoretical point of view, many different models, built on the basis of totally different and often even contrasting assumptions, have been provided to explain them. In this contribution we show the capabilities and the shortcomings of one of this models, a QMD code developed by us and coupled to the nuclear de-excitation module taken from the multipurpose transport and interaction code FLUKA, in reproducing the multifragmentation observations recently reported by the INDRA collaboration for the reaction Nb + Mg at a 30 MeV/A projectile bombarding energy. As far as fragment production is concerned, we also briefly discuss the isoscaling technique by considering reactions characterized by a different isospin asymmetry, and we explain how the QMD + FLUKA model can be applied to obtain information on the slope of isotopic yield ratios, which is crucially related to the symmetry energy of asymmetric nuclear matter.Comment: 8 pages, 2 figures, Proc. 12th International Conference on Nuclear Reaction Mechanisms, Varenna, Italy, June 15 - 19 200

t tbar W and t tbar Z Hadroproduction at NLO accuracy in QCD with Parton Shower and Hadronization effects

We present theoretical predictions for the hadroproduction of t tbar W+, t tbar W- and t tbar Z at LHC as obtained by matching numerical computations at NLO accuracy in QCD with Shower Monte Carlo programs. The calculation is performed by PowHel, relying on the POWHEG-BOX framework, that allows for the matching between the fixed order computation, with input of matrix elements produced by the HELAC-NLO collection of event generators, and the Parton Shower evolution, followed by hadronization and hadron decays as described by PYTHIA and HERWIG. We focus on the dilepton and trilepton decay channels, studied recently by the CMS Collaboration.Comment: 21 pages 12 figure

Top-antitop pair hadroproduction in association with a heavy boson at the NLO QCD accuracy + Parton Shower

The PowHel framework allows to make predictions of total and differential cross-sections of multiparticle hadroproduction processes at both NLO QCD accuracy and NLO QCD matched to Parton Shower, on the basis of the interface between the POWHEG-BOX and HELAC-NLO codes. It has already been applied to study several processes involving a top-antitop pair in association with a third particle or hadronic jet. Our most recent predictions concern top-antitop-V hadroproduction (with V = W or Z), at both parton and hadron level, by considering different decay channels (hadronic and leptonic) of the heavy particles. In particular, we show the results of our phenomenological analyses under the same system of cuts also recently adopted by the CMS collaboration at LHC.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, Proceedings of TOP 2012 - 5th International Workshop on Top Quark Physics, September 16 - 21 2012, Winchester, U

Z0 - boson production in association with a top anti-top pair at NLO accuracy with parton shower effects

We present predictions for the production cross section of a Standard Model Z0-boson in association with a top-antitop pair at the next-to-leading order accuracy in QCD, matched with shower Monte Carlo programs to evolve the system down to the hadronization energy scale. We adopt a framework based on three well established numerical codes, namely the POWHEG-BOX, used for computing the cross section, HELAC-NLO, which generates all necessary input matrix elements, and finally a parton shower program, such as PYTHIA or HERWIG, which allows for including t-quark and Z0-boson decays at the leading order accuracy and generates shower emissions, hadronization and hadron decays.Comment: 10 pages, 5 figures; found and corrected a bug in the phenomenological analysis, just affecting Fig.4 - 5 that turn out to change slightly with respect to our previous version and the cross-section values after all cuts. Conclusions qualitatively unchange

Prompt neutrinos from atmospheric charm in the general-mass variable-flavor-number scheme

We present predictions for the prompt-neutrino flux arising from the decay of charmed mesons and baryons produced by the interactions of high-energy cosmic rays in the Earth's atmosphere, making use of a QCD approach on the basis of the general-mass variable-flavor-number scheme for the description of charm hadroproduction at NLO, complemented by a consistent set of fragmentation functions. We compare the theoretical results to those already obtained by our and other groups with different theoretical approaches. We provide comparisons with the experimental results obtained by the IceCube Collaboration in two different analyses and we discuss the implications for parton distribution functions.Comment: 43 pages, 21 figures, updated version, to be published in JHE

A Monte Carlo approach to study neutron and fragment emission in heavy-ion reactions

Quantum Molecular Dynamics models (QMD) are Monte Carlo approaches targeted at the description of nucleon-ion and ion-ion collisions. We have developed a QMD code, which has been used for the simulation of the fast stage of ion-ion collisions, considering a wide range of system masses and system mass asymmetries. The slow stage of the collisions has been described by statistical methods. The combination of both stages leads to final distributions of particles and fragments, which have been compared to experimental data available in literature. A few results of these comparisons, concerning neutron double-differential production cross-sections for C, Ne and Ar ions impinging on C, Cu and Pb targets at 290 - 400 MeV/A bombarding energies and fragment isotopic distributions from Xe + Al at 790 MeV/A, are shown in this paper.Comment: 12 pages, 3 figures, submitted for publication in Adv. Space Re

Helac-nlo

Based on the OPP technique and the HELAC framework, HELAC-1LOOP is a program that is capable of numerically evaluating QCD virtual corrections to scattering amplitudes. A detailed presentation of the algorithm is given, along with instructions to run the code and benchmark results. The program is part of the HELAC-NLO framework that allows for a complete evaluation of QCD NLO corrections.Comment: minor text revisions, version to appear in Comput.Phys.Commu