Top-quark pair hadroproduction at next-to-next-to-leading order in QCD

Abstract

We report on a new calculation of the next-to-next-to-leading order (NNLO) QCD radiative corrections to the inclusive production of top-quark pairs at hadron colliders. The calculation is performed by using the $q_T$ subtraction formalism to handle and cancel infrared singular contributions at intermediate stages of the computation. We present numerical results for the total cross section in $pp$ collisions at $\sqrt{s}=8$ TeV and $13$ TeV, and we compare them with those obtained by using the publicly available numerical program Top++. Our computation represents the first complete application of the $q_T$ subtraction formalism to the hadroproduction of a colourful high-mass system at NNLO.

Figures (1)

• Figure 1: NNLO corrections $\Delta\sigma_{\rm NNLO}$ normalized to the Top++ result as a function of $r_{\rm cut}$ in the various channels. The blue bands represent our final extrapolated result with its uncertainty.