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QCD and Electroweak Interference in Higgs production by Gauge Boson Fusion

Jeppe R. Andersen, Jennifer M. Smillie

TL;DR

The paper investigates interference between QCD gluon-fusion and electroweak vector-boson fusion in Higgs plus two jets production at the LHC to assess potential contamination in HVV coupling measurements. Using an effective ggH vertex, it computes a tree-level QCD–EW interference term that is suppressed by t↔u crossing but remains numerically relevant, contributing about 1% of the gluon-fusion channel and 5–10% of the NLO EW corrections with a distinct kinematic profile. The authors argue that higher-order QCD corrections could lift the crossing suppression, potentially amplifying the interference to a level comparable with known NLO effects. These interference effects, and the broader idea of QCD–EW mixing, may thus influence HVV determinations and general Higgs production analyses beyond this specific case.

Abstract

We explicitly calculate the contribution to Higgs production at the LHC from the interference between gluon-gluon and Weak Vector Boson fusion, and compare it to the pure QCD and pure Electro-weak result. While the effect is small at tree level, we speculate it will be significantly enhanced by loop effects.

QCD and Electroweak Interference in Higgs production by Gauge Boson Fusion

TL;DR

The paper investigates interference between QCD gluon-fusion and electroweak vector-boson fusion in Higgs plus two jets production at the LHC to assess potential contamination in HVV coupling measurements. Using an effective ggH vertex, it computes a tree-level QCD–EW interference term that is suppressed by t↔u crossing but remains numerically relevant, contributing about 1% of the gluon-fusion channel and 5–10% of the NLO EW corrections with a distinct kinematic profile. The authors argue that higher-order QCD corrections could lift the crossing suppression, potentially amplifying the interference to a level comparable with known NLO effects. These interference effects, and the broader idea of QCD–EW mixing, may thus influence HVV determinations and general Higgs production analyses beyond this specific case.

Abstract

We explicitly calculate the contribution to Higgs production at the LHC from the interference between gluon-gluon and Weak Vector Boson fusion, and compare it to the pure QCD and pure Electro-weak result. While the effect is small at tree level, we speculate it will be significantly enhanced by loop effects.

Paper Structure

This paper contains 3 sections, 4 equations, 3 figures.

Table of Contents

  1. Introduction
  2. Higgs + 2 jets in the Standard Model
  3. Summary and Conclusions

Figures (3)

  • Figure 1: $Hjj$ production at tree level by weak boson fusion and gluon fusion (where the effective vertex from Eq. \ref{['eq:GGHcoupling']} is used).
  • Figure 2: Diagrams contributing to QCD and electro-weak interference terms of order $\alpha_\mathrm{ W}\sqrt{\alpha_\mathrm{ W}}\alpha_\mathrm{s}^3$ in the uncrossed channel for all assignments of quark flavours.
  • Figure 3: The contribution to $Hjj$ within the cuts of Eq. (\ref{['eq:cuts']}) from various tree level processes as a function of the mass of the Higgs boson. ZZxQCD and ZZxZZ denote $t\leftrightarrow u$-channel interference terms.