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NNLO QCD corrections to $Wb\bar{b}$ production at the LHC

Heribertus Bayu Hartanto, Rene Poncelet, Andrei Popescu, Simone Zoia

TL;DR

The paper addresses precise QCD predictions for W boson production with a bottom-quark pair at the LHC, a process with large NLO corrections and important backgrounds. It develops the first NNLO QCD calculation for a 2→3 process with a massive external state by deriving the leading-color two-loop five-point amplitudes via finite-field methods and integrating them into a Stripper-based framework with OpenLoops inputs and W decay factorization. It presents fiducial cross sections and differential distributions at 8 TeV, showing significant improvement in perturbative stability and quantifying jet-veto uncertainties with a dedicated prescription. The results mark a milestone in precision phenomenology for complex multi-jet final states and pave the way for including full color and mass effects in future work.

Abstract

We compute theoretical predictions for the production of a W-boson in association with a bottom-quark pair at hadron colliders at next-to-next-to-leading order (NNLO) in QCD, including the leptonic decay of the W-boson, while treating the bottom quark as massless. This calculation constitutes the very first $2 \to 3$ process with a massive external particle to be studied at such a perturbative order. We derive an analytic expression for the required two-loop five-particle amplitudes in the leading colour approximation employing finite-field methods. Numerical results for the cross section and differential distributions are presented for the Large Hadron Collider at $\sqrt{s} = 8$ TeV. We observe an improvement of the perturbative convergence for the inclusive case and for the prediction with a jet veto upon the inclusion of the NNLO QCD corrections.

NNLO QCD corrections to $Wb\bar{b}$ production at the LHC

TL;DR

The paper addresses precise QCD predictions for W boson production with a bottom-quark pair at the LHC, a process with large NLO corrections and important backgrounds. It develops the first NNLO QCD calculation for a 2→3 process with a massive external state by deriving the leading-color two-loop five-point amplitudes via finite-field methods and integrating them into a Stripper-based framework with OpenLoops inputs and W decay factorization. It presents fiducial cross sections and differential distributions at 8 TeV, showing significant improvement in perturbative stability and quantifying jet-veto uncertainties with a dedicated prescription. The results mark a milestone in precision phenomenology for complex multi-jet final states and pave the way for including full color and mass effects in future work.

Abstract

We compute theoretical predictions for the production of a W-boson in association with a bottom-quark pair at hadron colliders at next-to-next-to-leading order (NNLO) in QCD, including the leptonic decay of the W-boson, while treating the bottom quark as massless. This calculation constitutes the very first process with a massive external particle to be studied at such a perturbative order. We derive an analytic expression for the required two-loop five-particle amplitudes in the leading colour approximation employing finite-field methods. Numerical results for the cross section and differential distributions are presented for the Large Hadron Collider at TeV. We observe an improvement of the perturbative convergence for the inclusive case and for the prediction with a jet veto upon the inclusion of the NNLO QCD corrections.
Paper Structure (4 sections, 9 equations, 3 figures, 1 table)

This paper contains 4 sections, 9 equations, 3 figures, 1 table.

Table of Contents

  1. Introduction
  2. Calculation
  3. Phenomenology
  4. Conclusions

Figures (3)

  • Figure 1: The charged lepton's transverse momentum distribution. The upper panel shows the absolute predictions for the inclusive and exclusive selection at different perturbative orders. The middle panel shows the inclusive cross sections as a ratio with respect to the central NLO prediction, with the coloured bands indicating the 7-point scale variation. The lower panel shows the same ratio for the exclusive configuration. Here, the coloured bands correspond to the decorrelated scale variation, and the hashed bands to the standard 7-point variation. The vertical bars indicate the statistical uncertainty.
  • Figure 2: Transverse momentum distribution of the $b\bar{b}$ system. Same layout as in Fig. \ref{['fig:10_pTl']}.
  • Figure 3: Invariant mass distribution of the $b\bar{b}$ system. Same layout as in Fig. \ref{['fig:10_pTl']}.