NLO automated tools for QCD and beyond

Theoretical predictions for scattering processes with multi-particle final states at next-to-leading order (NLO) in perturbative QCD are essential to fully exploit the physics potential of present and future high-energy colliders. The status of NLO QCD calculations and tools is reviewed.Comment: 13 pages, 2 tables, to appear in the proceedings of Linear Collider 2011 (Understanding QCD at linear colliders in searching for old and new physics), 12-16 September 2011, ECT*, Trento, Italy; added reference

Inadequacy of zero-width approximation for a light Higgs boson signal

The zero-width approximation (ZWA) restricts the intermediate unstable particle state to the mass shell and, when combined with the decorrelation approximation, fully factorizes the production and decay of unstable particles. The ZWA uncertainty is expected to be of O(Gamma/M), where M and Gamma are the mass and width of the unstable particle. We review the ZWA and demonstrate that errors can be much larger than expected if a significant modification of the Breit-Wigner lineshape occurs. A thorough examination of the recently discovered candidate Standard Model Higgs boson is in progress. For M_H ~ 125 GeV, one has Gamma_H/M_H < 10^(-4), which suggests an excellent accuracy of the ZWA. We show that this is not always the case. The inclusion of off-shell contributions is essential to obtain an accurate Higgs signal normalization at the 1% precision level. For gg -> H -> VV, V = W,Z, O(5-10%) corrections occur due to an enhanced Higgs signal in the region M_VV > 2 M_V, where also sizable Higgs-continuum interference occurs. We discuss how experimental selection cuts can be used to suppress this region in search channels where the Higgs mass cannot be reconstructed. We note that H -> VV decay modes in non-gluon-fusion channels are similarly affected.Comment: Brief Review for MPLA, 19 pages, 6 figures, 2 tables; added 2 reference

Gluon-induced WW background to Higgs boson searches at the LHC

Vector-boson pair production is an important background for Higgs boson and new physics searches at the Large Hadron Collider LHC. We have calculated the loop-induced gluon-fusion process gg -> WW -> leptons, allowing for arbitrary invariant masses of the intermediate W bosons. This process contributes at O(alpha_s^2) relative to quark-antiquark annihilation, but its importance is enhanced by the large gluon flux at the LHC and by experimental cuts employed in Higgs boson searches. We find that gg -> WW provides only a moderate correction (ca. 5%) to the inclusive W-pair production cross section at the LHC. However, after taking into account realistic experimental cuts, the gluon-fusion process becomes significant and increases the theoretical WW background estimate for Higgs searches in the pp -> H -> WW -> leptons channel by approximately 30%

NLO QCD predictions for internal jet shapes in DIS at HERA

The transverse momentum flow inside jets is a sensitive measure of internal jet structure. For the current jets in deep inelastic scattering this jet shape measure is determined at order alpha_s^2, i.e. with up to three partons inside a single jet. The scale dependence of jet shapes in various jet algorithms is discussed. Results agree well with recent measurements by the ZEUS Collaboration, without introducing the hadronization parameter R_sep.Comment: 10 pages, LaTeX2.09, REVTeX3.1, 9 postscript figure

SINGINT: Automatic numerical integration of singular integrands

We explore the combination of deterministic and Monte Carlo methods to facilitate efficient automatic numerical computation of multidimensional integrals with singular integrands. Two adaptive algorithms are presented that employ recursion and are runtime and memory optimised, respectively. SINGINT, a C implementation of the algorithms, is introduced and its utilisation in the calculation of particle scattering amplitudes is exemplified