Single production of vector-like quarks: the effects of large width, interference and NLO corrections

We provide a comprehensive discussion, together with a complete setup for simulations, relevant for the production of a single vector-like quark at hadron colliders. Our predictions include finite width effects, signal-background interference effects and next-to-leading order QCD corrections. We explicitly apply the framework to study the single production of a vector-like quark T with charge 2/3, but the same procedure can be used to analyse the single production of vector-like quarks with charge −4/3, −1/3, 2/3 and 5/3, when the vector-like quark interacts with the Standard Model quarks and electroweak bosons. Moreover, this procedure can be straightforwardly extended to include additional interactions with exotic particles. We provide quantitative results for representative benchmark scenarios characterised by the T mass and width, and we determine the role of the interference terms for a range of masses and widths of phenomenological significance. We additionally describe in detail, both analytically and numerically, a striking feature in the invariant mass distribution appearing only in the T → th channel.

Exploring QED Effects to Diphoton Production at Hadron Colliders

In this article, we report phenomenological studies about the impact of O(α) corrections to diphoton production at hadron colliders. We explore the application of the Abelianized version of the qT-subtraction method to efficiently compute NLO QED contributions, taking advantage of the symmetries relating QCD and QED corrections. We analyze the experimental consequences due to the selection criteria and we find percent-level deviations for Mγγ>1TeV. An accurate description of the tail of the invariant mass distribution is very important for new physics searches which have the diphoton process as one of their main backgrounds. Moreover, we emphasize the importance of properly dealing with the observable photons by reproducing the experimental conditions applied to the event reconstruction.

The role of the threshold variable in soft-gluon resummation of the $$ t\overline{t}h $$ production process

We study the role of the scale of the threshold variable in soft-gluon threshold resummation. We focus on the computation of the resummed total cross section, the final-state invariant-mass distribution, and transverse-momentum distribution of the Higgs boson when produced in association with a top-anti-top quark pair for the Large Hadron Collider operating at 13 TeV. We show that different choices for the scale of the threshold variable result in differences at next-to-leading power, i.e. contributions that are down by one power of the threshold variable. These contributions are noticeable numerically, although their effect on the resummed observables lies within the scale uncertainty of those observables. The average central results, obtained after combining several central- scale choices, agree remarkably well for different choices of the threshold variable. However, different threshold choices do affect the resulting scale uncertainty. To compute our results, we introduce a novel numerical method that we call the deformation method, which aids the stabilization of the inverse Mellin transform in cases where the analytical Mellin transform of the partonic cross section is unknown. We show that this method leads to a factor of 10 less function evaluations, while gaining a factor of 4 − 5 in numerical precision when compared to the standard method.

Measurement of light-by-light scattering and search for axion-like particles with 2.2 nb−1 of Pb+Pb data with the ATLAS detector

This paper describes a measurement of light-by-light scattering based on Pb+Pb collision data recorded by the ATLAS experiment during Run 2 of the LHC. The study uses 2.2 nb−1 of integrated luminosity collected in 2015 and 2018 at $$ \sqrt{s_{\mathrm{NN}}} $$ s NN = 5.02 TeV. Light-by-light scattering candidates are selected in events with two photons produced exclusively, each with transverse energy $$ {E}_{\mathrm{T}}^{\gamma } $$ E T γ > 2.5 GeV, pseudorapidity |ηγ| < 2.37, diphoton invariant mass mγγ> 5 GeV, and with small diphoton transverse momentum and diphoton acoplanarity. The integrated and differential fiducial cross sections are measured and compared with theoretical predictions. The diphoton invariant mass distribution is used to set limits on the production of axion-like particles. This result provides the most stringent limits to date on axion-like particle production for masses in the range 6–100 GeV. Cross sections above 2 to 70 nb are excluded at the 95% CL in that mass interval.

Measurements of $${\mathrm{p}} {\mathrm{p}} \rightarrow {\mathrm{Z}} {\mathrm{Z}} $$ production cross sections and constraints on anomalous triple gauge couplings at $$\sqrt{s} = 13\,\text {TeV} $$

The production of Z boson pairs in proton–proton ($${\mathrm{p}} {\mathrm{p}} $$ p p ) collisions, $${{\mathrm{p}} {\mathrm{p}} \rightarrow ({\mathrm{Z}}/\gamma ^*)({\mathrm{Z}}/\gamma ^*) \rightarrow 2\ell 2\ell '}$$ p p → ( Z / γ ∗ ) ( Z / γ ∗ ) → 2 ℓ 2 ℓ ′ , where $${\ell ,\ell ' = {\mathrm{e}}}$$ ℓ , ℓ ′ = e or $${{\upmu }}$$ μ , is studied at a center-of-mass energy of 13$$\,\text {TeV}$$ TeV with the CMS detector at the CERN LHC. The data sample corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 137$$\,\text {fb}^{-1}$$ fb - 1 , collected during 2016–2018. The $${\mathrm{Z}} {\mathrm{Z}} $$ Z Z production cross section, $$\sigma _{\text {tot}} ({\mathrm{p}} {\mathrm{p}} \rightarrow {\mathrm{Z}} {\mathrm{Z}} ) = 17.4 \pm 0.3 \,\text {(stat)} \pm 0.5 \,\text {(syst)} \pm 0.4 \,\text {(theo)} \pm 0.3 \,\text {(lumi)} \text { pb} $$ σ tot ( p p → Z Z ) = 17.4 ± 0.3 (stat) ± 0.5 (syst) ± 0.4 (theo) ± 0.3 (lumi) pb , measured for events with two pairs of opposite-sign, same-flavor leptons produced in the mass region $${60< m_{\ell ^+\ell ^-} < 120\,\text {GeV}}$$ 60 < m ℓ + ℓ - < 120 GeV is consistent with standard model predictions. Differential cross sections are also measured and agree with theoretical predictions. The invariant mass distribution of the four-lepton system is used to set limits on anomalous $${\mathrm{Z}} {\mathrm{Z}} {\mathrm{Z}} $$ Z Z Z and $${{\mathrm{Z}} {\mathrm{Z}} \gamma }$$ Z Z γ couplings.

QED corrections in $$ \overline{B}\to \overline{K}{\mathrm{\ell}}^{+}{\mathrm{\ell}}^{-} $$ at the double-differential level

We present a detailed analysis of QED corrections to $$ \overline{B}\to \overline{K}{\mathrm{\ell}}^{+}{\mathrm{\ell}}^{-} $$ B ¯ → K ¯ ℓ + ℓ − decays at the double-differential level. Cancellations of soft and collinear divergences are demonstrated analytically using the phase space slicing method. Whereas soft divergences are found to cancel at the differential level, the cancellation of the hard-collinear logs ln mℓ require, besides photon-inclusiveness, a specific choice of kinematic variables. In particular, hard-collinear logs in the lepton-pair invariant mass distribution (q2), are sizeable and need to be treated with care when comparing with experiment. Virtual and real amplitudes are evaluated using an effective mesonic Lagrangian. Crucially, we show that going beyond this approximation does not introduce any further infrared sensitive terms. All analytic computations are performed for generic charges and are therefore adaptable to semileptonic decays such as $$ \overline{B}\to D\mathrm{\ell}\overline{\nu } $$ B ¯ → D ℓ ν ¯ .

Model-independent approach for incorporating interference effects in collider searches for new resonances

The presence of large-mass resonances in the data collected at the Large Hadron Collider would provide direct evidence of physics beyond the Standard Model. A key challenge in current resonance searches at the LHC is the modelling of signal–background interference effects, which can severely distort the shape of the reconstructed invariant mass distribution relative to the case where there is no interference. Such effects are strongly dependent on the beyond the Standard Model theory that must be considered as unknown if one aims to minimise any theoretical bias on the search results. In this paper, we describe a procedure which employs a physically-motivated, model-independent template functional form that can be used to model interference effects, both for the characterisation of positive discoveries, and in the presentation of null results. We illustrate the approach with the example of a scalar resonance decaying into a pair of photons.

Double Higgs boson production and Higgs self-coupling extraction at CLIC

The Compact Linear Collider (CLIC) is a future electron–positron collider that will allow measurements of the trilinear Higgs self-coupling in double Higgs boson events produced at its high-energy stages with collision energies from $$\sqrt{s}$$ s = 1.4 to 3 TeV. The sensitivity to the Higgs self-coupling is driven by the measurements of the cross section and the invariant mass distribution of the Higgs-boson pair in the W-boson fusion process, $$\text {e}^{+}\text {e}^{-}\rightarrow {\text {H}\text {H}\nu \bar{\nu }}$$ e + e - → HH ν ν ¯ . It is enhanced by including the cross-section measurement of ZHH production at 1.4 TeV. The expected sensitivity of CLIC for Higgs pair production through W-boson fusion is studied for the decay channels $$\mathrm{b}\bar{\mathrm{b}}\mathrm{b}\bar{\mathrm{b}}$$ b b ¯ b b ¯ and $$\mathrm{b}\bar{\mathrm{b}}\mathrm{W}\mathrm{W}^{*}$$ b b ¯ W W ∗ using full detector simulation including all relevant backgrounds at $$\sqrt{s}$$ s = 1.4 TeV with an integrated luminosity of $$\mathcal {L}$$ L = 2.5 ab$$^{-1}$$ - 1 and at $$\sqrt{s}$$ s = 3 TeV with $$\mathcal {L}$$ L = 5 ab$$^{-1}$$ - 1 . Combining $$\text {e}^{+}\text {e}^{-}\rightarrow {\text {H}\text {H}\nu \bar{\nu }}$$ e + e - → HH ν ν ¯ and ZHH cross-section measurements at 1.4 TeV with differential measurements in $$\text {e}^{+}\text {e}^{-}\rightarrow {\text {H}\text {H}\nu \bar{\nu }}$$ e + e - → HH ν ν ¯ events at 3 TeV, CLIC will be able to measure the trilinear Higgs self-coupling with a relative uncertainty of $$-8\%$$ - 8 % and $$ +11\%$$ + 11 % at 68% C.L., assuming the Standard Model. In addition, prospects for simultaneous constraints on the trilinear Higgs self-coupling and the Higgs-gauge coupling HHWW are derived based on the $${\text {H}\text {H}\nu \bar{\nu }}$$ HH ν ν ¯ measurement.

Resummed inclusive cross-section in ADD model at N3LL

We present three loop soft-plus-virtual (SV) corrections to the spin-2 production at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). For this calculation, we make use of the recently computed quark and gluon three loop form factors for the spin-2 production, the universal soft-collinear coefficients as well as the mass factorization kernels. The SV coefficients are presented up to next-to-next-to-next-to leading order (N3LOsv). We also use these coefficients at three loops to compute the resummed prediction for inclusive cross-section to next-to-next-to-next-to leading logarithmic accuracy (N3LL) matched to N3LOsv. We use the standard technique to derive the Mellin N-dependent coefficients and also the N-independent coefficients to achieve the resummation using the minimal prescription matching procedure. Considering the spin-2 propagator in the large extra dimensional (ADD) model, we also study the numerical impact of these three-loop SV corrections as well as the resummed predictions on the di-lepton invariant mass distribution at the 13 TeV LHC. We find that the conventional scale uncertainties in the N3LOsv +N3LL resummed results substantially get reduced to as low as 2% in the high invariant mass region. We also estimate the PDF uncertainties in our predictions that will be useful in the experimental searches for large extra dimensions.