Gehrmann T, Grazzini M, Kallweit S, Maierhöfer P, von Manteuffel A, Pozzorini S, Rathlev D, Tancredi L. W+ W- production at hadron colliders in next to next to leading order QCD.
PHYSICAL REVIEW LETTERS 2014;
113:212001. [PMID:
25479488 DOI:
10.1103/physrevlett.113.212001]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 33] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/26/2014] [Indexed: 06/04/2023]
Abstract
Charged gauge boson pair production at the Large Hadron Collider allows detailed probes of the fundamental structure of electroweak interactions. We present precise theoretical predictions for on-shell W+ W- production that include, for the first time, QCD effects up to next to next to leading order in perturbation theory. As compared to next to leading order, the inclusive W+ W- cross section is enhanced by 9% at 7 TeV and 12% at 14 TeV. The residual perturbative uncertainty is at the 3% level. The severe contamination of the W+ W- cross section due to top-quark resonances is discussed in detail. Comparing different definitions of top-free W+ W- production in the four and five flavor number schemes, we demonstrate that top-quark resonances can be separated from the inclusive W+ W- cross section without a significant loss of theoretical precision.
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