Electroweak & QCD corrections to Drell Yan processes

TL;DR

This work surveys the state of the art in electroweak and QCD radiative corrections to Drell-Yan processes at hadron colliders, emphasizing the need for highly precise theory to match the anticipated LHC accuracy. It reviews a broad set of QCD and EW calculations and tools, and discusses strategies to combine these corrections in a way that preserves accuracy for key observables. The numerical results demonstrate that EW effects are substantial near the W/Z resonances while Sudakov logarithms become important in high-energy tails, and that QCD and EW corrections can offset each other depending on the observable region. The authors highlight the importance of joint QCD-EW treatment for precise W mass measurements and for reliable SM backgrounds in new physics searches, outlining plans for more comprehensive studies with additional generators and observables.

Abstract

The relevance of single-W and single-Z production processes at hadron colliders is well known: in the present paper the status of theoretical calculations of Drell-Yan processes is summarized and some results on the combination of electroweak and QCD corrections to a sample of observables of the process $p p \to W^\pm \to μ^\pm + X$ at the LHC are discussed. The phenomenological analysis shows that a high-precision knowledge of QCD and a careful combination of electroweak and strong contributions is mandatory in view of the anticipated LHC experimental accuracy. One of the authors (O.N.) dedicates these notes to Prof. S. Jadach, in honour of his 60th birthday and grateful for all that Prof. Jadach taught him during their fruitful collaboration.

Figures (3)

• Figure 1: Upper panel: HORACE predictions for the $Z$ invariant mass distribution around the peak (left) and in the high tail (right). Lower panel: relative effect of EW corrections.
• Figure 2: Upper panel: predictions of MC@NLO, MC@NLO+HORACE and leading-order HORACE+HERWIG PS for the $M_\perp^W$ (left) and $p_\perp^\mu$ (right) distributions at the LHC, according to the cuts of set up a. Lower panel: relative effect of QCD and EW corrections, and their sum, for the corresponding observables in the upper panel.
• Figure 3: The same as Fig. \ref{['peak']} according to the cuts of set up b.