Logo
ScienceStack
Table of Contents
Fetching ...
Sign In

Fully differential Higgs boson production and the di-photon signal through next-to-next-to-leading order

Charalampos Anastasiou, Kirill Melnikov, Frank Petriello

TL;DR

The paper tackles the challenge of computing fully differential Higgs production cross sections at NNLO in QCD, including H → γγ decays, with arbitrary experimental cuts. It introduces and applies a sector-decomposition based method to extract and cancel infrared and collinear singularities without analytic integration, enabling fully differential predictions. The calculation is implemented in FEHiP, a Monte Carlo code that handles double-real emission, collinear subtraction, and flexible phase-space parameterizations to produce realistic K-factors and photon-distribution observables under ATLAS/CMS-like cuts. The results demonstrate improved perturbative stability, reduced scale dependence, and provide the first fully differential NNLO predictions for the Higgs di-photon signal at the LHC, with potential for further refinements and extensions to additional decay channels.

Abstract

We describe a calculation of the fully differential cross section for Higgs boson production in the gluon fusion channel through next-to-next-to-leading order (NNLO) in perturbative QCD. The decay of the Higgs boson into two photons is included. Technical aspects of the computation are discussed in detail. The implementation of the calculation into a numerical code, called FEHiP, is described. The NNLO K-factors for completely realistic photon acceptances and isolation cuts, including those employed by the ATLAS and CMS collaborations, are computed. We study various distributions of the photons from Higgs decay through NNLO.

Fully differential Higgs boson production and the di-photon signal through next-to-next-to-leading order

TL;DR

The paper tackles the challenge of computing fully differential Higgs production cross sections at NNLO in QCD, including H → γγ decays, with arbitrary experimental cuts. It introduces and applies a sector-decomposition based method to extract and cancel infrared and collinear singularities without analytic integration, enabling fully differential predictions. The calculation is implemented in FEHiP, a Monte Carlo code that handles double-real emission, collinear subtraction, and flexible phase-space parameterizations to produce realistic K-factors and photon-distribution observables under ATLAS/CMS-like cuts. The results demonstrate improved perturbative stability, reduced scale dependence, and provide the first fully differential NNLO predictions for the Higgs di-photon signal at the LHC, with potential for further refinements and extensions to additional decay channels.

Abstract

We describe a calculation of the fully differential cross section for Higgs boson production in the gluon fusion channel through next-to-next-to-leading order (NNLO) in perturbative QCD. The decay of the Higgs boson into two photons is included. Technical aspects of the computation are discussed in detail. The implementation of the calculation into a numerical code, called FEHiP, is described. The NNLO K-factors for completely realistic photon acceptances and isolation cuts, including those employed by the ATLAS and CMS collaborations, are computed. We study various distributions of the photons from Higgs decay through NNLO.

Paper Structure

This paper contains 15 sections, 78 equations, 9 figures, 2 tables.

Table of Contents

  1. Introduction
  2. Higgs boson production at hadron colliders
  3. Notation and Setup
  4. Production of the Higgs boson in association with up to one parton
  5. Computation of the collinear subtraction terms
  6. Phase space parameterizations for double real emission processes
  7. Factorizing singularities
  8. Topologies for Higgs hadro-production
  9. Results
  10. Description of the FORTRAN code
  11. Download and Compile
  12. Basic parameters and Usage
  13. Experimental cuts
  14. Other information
  15. Conclusions

Figures (9)

  • Figure 1: Examples of diagrams that contribute to the $g + g \to H$ cross section
  • Figure 2: Examples of diagrams that contribute to the production of the Higgs boson in association with one parton.
  • Figure 3: Bin-integrated Higgs boson rapidity distribution at the LHC. The bands indicate the scale choice $m_h/2 \leq \mu \leq 2m_h$.
  • Figure 4: Bin-integrated Higgs boson rapidity distributions at the LHC with a jet veto applied.
  • Figure 5: The Higgs boson production cross section at the LHC as a function of $p_{\rm T,veto}$.
  • ...and 4 more figures