Effects of jet algorithms from higher order QCD in $W^\pm$ mass determinations at LEP2

Abstract

We analyse the impact of systematic effects due to the scale dependence of QCD corrections in combination with the use of different jet clustering algorithms in the measurement of the $W^\pm$ mass in the fully hadronic decay mode of $W^+W^-$ pairs produced at LEP2. We consider higher order contributions induced by both virtual and real gluon radiation onto the electroweak CC03 and CC11 channels through ${\cal O}(\alpha_{s})$ at the parton level. We find that the associated uncertainties can be of order 100 MeV, thus competitive with those possibly arising in the non-perturbative regime and indeed above the current experimental estimates.Comment: 16 pages, latex, 4 figures, version to appear in EPJdirect