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Higher-order corrections to top-antitop pair and single top quark production

Nikolaos Kidonakis

TL;DR

The paper addresses the need for precise theoretical predictions of top-quark production cross sections at the Tevatron and LHC, incorporating dominant soft-gluon corrections. It employs soft-gluon resummation to NNLL accuracy and expands the resummed results to obtain approximate NNLO (and, for single-top channels at the Tevatron, approximate NNNLO) cross sections, all computed in a fully differential framework to preserve kinematics and yield $p_T$ distributions in addition to total rates. Key contributions include NNLOapprox predictions for $t\bar t$ production across multiple PDFs and collider energies, differential distributions, and approximate NNNLO results for all three single-top channels at the Tevatron, with a discussion of the relative importance of channels at LHC energies. The findings show enhanced cross sections with reduced scale dependence and improved agreement with data, enabling more precise tests of QCD and more accurate determinations of CKM properties such as $|V_{tb}|$ in electroweak top production.

Abstract

I present the latest results on the theoretical cross section for top-antitop pair production as well as for single top production at the Tevatron and the LHC. The calculations include higher-order soft-gluon corrections which are dominant near threshold. The top quark transverse momentum distribution is also presented.

Higher-order corrections to top-antitop pair and single top quark production

TL;DR

The paper addresses the need for precise theoretical predictions of top-quark production cross sections at the Tevatron and LHC, incorporating dominant soft-gluon corrections. It employs soft-gluon resummation to NNLL accuracy and expands the resummed results to obtain approximate NNLO (and, for single-top channels at the Tevatron, approximate NNNLO) cross sections, all computed in a fully differential framework to preserve kinematics and yield distributions in addition to total rates. Key contributions include NNLOapprox predictions for production across multiple PDFs and collider energies, differential distributions, and approximate NNNLO results for all three single-top channels at the Tevatron, with a discussion of the relative importance of channels at LHC energies. The findings show enhanced cross sections with reduced scale dependence and improved agreement with data, enabling more precise tests of QCD and more accurate determinations of CKM properties such as in electroweak top production.

Abstract

I present the latest results on the theoretical cross section for top-antitop pair production as well as for single top production at the Tevatron and the LHC. The calculations include higher-order soft-gluon corrections which are dominant near threshold. The top quark transverse momentum distribution is also presented.

Paper Structure

This paper contains 3 sections, 8 equations, 10 figures.

Table of Contents

  1. Introduction
  2. Top pair production
  3. Single top quark production

Figures (10)

  • Figure 1: The NLO and approximate NNLO $t {\bar{t}}$ cross sections in $p \overline p$ collisions at the Tevatron using the MRST 2006 NNLO pdf.
  • Figure 2: The NLO and approximate NNLO $t {\bar{t}}$ cross sections in $p \overline p$ collisions at the Tevatron using the CTEQ6.6M pdf.
  • Figure 3: The NLO and approximate NNLO $t {\bar{t}}$ cross sections in $p \overline p$ collisions at the Tevatron using the MSTW 2008 NNLO pdf.
  • Figure 4: The NLO and approximate NNLO top quark tranverse momentum distributions in $p \overline p$ collisions at the Tevatron.
  • Figure 5: The NLO and approximate NNLO $t {\bar{t}}$ cross sections in $p p$ collisions at the LHC at 14 TeV using the MRST 2006 NNLO pdf.
  • ...and 5 more figures