A unified NLO description of top-pair and associated Wt production

We present an NLO simulation of WWbb production with massive b-quarks at the LHC. Off-shell and non-resonant contributions associated with top-pair and single-top channels and with leptonic W-boson decays are consistently taken into account using the complex-mass scheme. Thanks to the finite b-quark mass, WWbb predictions can be extended to the whole b-quark phase space, thereby including Wt-channel single-top contributions that originate from collinear g->bb splittings in the four-flavour scheme. This provides a consistent NLO description of tt and Wt production and decay, including quantum interference effects. The simulation is also applicable to exclusive 0- and 1-jet bins, which is of great importance for Higgs-boson studies in the H->WW channel and for any other analysis with large top backgrounds and jet vetoes or jet bins.Comment: 8pp. Minor revision, results unchange

Precise numerical evaluation of the two loop sunrise graph Master Integrals in the equal mass case

We present a double precision routine in Fortran for the precise and fast numerical evaluation of the two Master Integrals (MIs) of the equal mass two-loop sunrise graph for arbitrary momentum transfer in d=2 and d=4 dimensions. The routine implements the accelerated power series expansions obtained by solving the corresponding differential equations for the MIs at their singular points. With a maximum of 22 terms for the worst case expansion a relative precision of better than a part in 10^{15} is achieved for arbitrary real values of the momentum transfer.Comment: 11 pages, LaTeX. The complete paper is also available via the www at http://www-ttp.physik.uni-karlsruhe.de/Preprints/ and the program can be downloaded from http://www-ttp.physik.uni-karlsruhe.de/Progdata

NLO QCD+EW predictions for 2ℓ\ell2v diboson signatures at the LHC

We present next-to-leading order (NLO) calculations including QCD and electroweak (EW) corrections for 2$\ell$2ν diboson signatures with two opposite-charge leptons and two neutrinos. Specifically, we study the processes $pp \to e^+\mu^-\nu_e\overline{\nu}_{\mu}$ and $pp \to e^+e^-\nu\overline{\nu}$, including all relevant off-shell diboson channels, $W^+W^-, ZZ, \gamma Z$, as well as non-resonant contributions. Photon-induced processes are computed at NLO EW, and we discuss subtle differences related to the definition and the renormalisation of the coupling α for processes with initial- and final-state photons. All calculations are performed within the automated Munich/Sherpa+OpenLoops frameworks, and we provide numerical predictions for the LHC at 13 TeV. The behaviour of the corrections is investigated with emphasis on the high-energy regime, where NLO EW effects can amount to tens of percent due to large Sudakov logarithms. The interplay between $W$ $W$and $ZZ$ contributions to the same-flavour channel, $pp \to e^+e^-\nu\overline{\nu}$, is discussed in detail, and a quantitative analysis of photon-induced contributions is presented. Finally, we consider approximations that account for all sources of large logarithms, at high and low energy, by combining virtual EW corrections with a YFS soft-photon resummation or a QED parton shower

Two-loop electroweak corrections at high energies

We discuss two-loop leading and angular-dependent next-to-leading logarithmic electroweak virtual corrections to arbitrary processes at energies above the electroweak scale. The relevant Feynman diagrams involving soft-collinear gauge bosons gamma, Z, W, have been evaluated in eikonal approximation. We present results obtained from the analytic evaluation of massive loop integrals. To isolate mass singularities we used the Sudakov method and alternatively the sector decomposition method in the Feynman-parameter representation.Comment: 5 pages. Talk presented by S.P. at the International Symposium on Radiative Corrections RADCOR 2002, September 8-13, Kloster Banz, Germany. To appear in the proceeding

One-loop weak corrections to hadronic production of Z bosons at large transverse momenta

To match the precision of present and future measurements of Z-boson production at hadron colliders, electroweak radiative corrections must be included in the theory predictions. In this paper we consider their effect on the transverse momentum ($p_T$) distribution of Z bosons, with emphasis on large $p_T$. We evaluate, analytically and numerically, the full one-loop corrections for the parton scattering reaction $q\bar q \to Z g$ and its crossed variants. In addition we derive compact approximate expressions which are valid in the high-energy region, where the weak corrections are strongly enhanced by logarithms of $\hat s/M_W^2$. These expressions include quadratic and single logarithms as well as those terms that are not logarithmically enhanced. This approximation, which confirms and extends earlier results obtained to next-to-leading logarithmic accuracy, permits to reproduce the exact one-loop corrections with high precision. Numerical results are presented for proton-proton and proton-antiproton collisions. The corrections are negative and their size increases with $p_T$. For the Tevatron they amount up to -7% at 300 GeV. For the LHC, where transverse momenta of 2 TeV or more can be reached, corrections up to -40% are observed. We also include the dominant two-loop effects of up to 8% in our final LHC predictions.Comment: 32 pages, 7 figure

Electroweak Evolution Equations

Enlarging a previous analysis, where only fermions and transverse gauge bosons were taken into account, we write down infrared-collinear evolution equations for the Standard Model of electroweak interactions computing the full set of splitting functions. Due to the presence of double logs which are characteristic of electroweak interactions (Bloch-Nordsieck violation), new infrared singular splitting functions have to be introduced. We also include corrections related to the third generation Yukawa couplings.Comment: 15 pages, 3 figure