NLO QCD corrections to the production of Higgs plus two jets at the LHC

TL;DR

This work delivers a full NLO QCD calculation for Higgs plus two jets production via gluon fusion in the infinite top-mass limit, using an automated GoSam-Sherpa framework via the BLHA interface. It extends d-dimensional integrand reduction to theories with higher-dimensional Higgs-gluon operators and reports first one-loop matrix elements for Higgs plus three jets with a quark-pair final state. The results show NLO corrections increase the cross section by about 50% and substantially reduce renormalization and factorization scale uncertainties, with K-factors around 1.5–1.6 across key observables. The study demonstrates the viability of fully automated fixed-order predictions for Higgs+multijet processes and outlines initial steps toward Hjjj at NLO.

Abstract

We present the calculation of the NLO QCD corrections to the associated production of a Higgs boson and two jets, in the infinite top-mass limit. We discuss the technical details of the computation and we show the numerical impact of the radiative corrections on several observables at the LHC. The results are obtained by using a fully automated framework for fixed order NLO QCD calculations based on the interplay of the packages GoSam and Sherpa. The evaluation of the virtual corrections constitutes an application of the d-dimensional integrand-level reduction to theories with higher dimensional operators. We also present first results for the one-loop matrix elements of the partonic processes with a quark-pair in the final state, which enter the hadronic production of a Higgs boson together with three jets in the infinite top-mass approximation.

Figures (7)

• Figure 1: Transverse momentum $p_T$ of the Higgs boson.
• Figure 2: Pseudorapidity $\eta$ of the Higgs boson.
• Figure 3: Transverse momentum $p_T$ of the first jet.
• Figure 4: Transverse momentum $p_T$ of the second jet.
• Figure 5: Pseudorapidity $\eta$ of the first jet.