# QCD corrections to W+W− production through gluon fusion

Caola, Fabrizio; Melnikov, Kirill; Röntsch, Raoul; Tancredi, Lorenzo

Abstract:
We compute the next-to-leading order (NLO) QCD corrections to the gg→W$^{+}$W$^{-}$→l$^{+}$$_{1}ν_{1}l^{-}$$_{2}$$\bar{ν}$$_{2}$ process, mediated by a massless quark loop, at the LHC. This process first contributes to the hadroproduction of W$^{+}$W$^{-}$ at O(α$^{2}$$_{s}$), but, nevertheless, has a sizable impact on the total production rate. We find that the NLO QCD corrections to the gg→W$^{+}$W$^{-}$process amount to O(50)%, and increase the NNLO QCD cross sections of pp →W$^{+}$W$^{-}$ by approximately two percent, at both the 8TeV and 13TeV LHC. We also compute the NLO corrections to gluonic W$^{+}$W$^{-}$production within a fiducial volume used by the ATLAS Collaborationin their 8TeV measurement of the W$^{+}$W$^{-}$ production rate and find that the QCD corrections are significantly smaller than in the inclusive case. While the current experimental uncertainties are still too large to make these differences relevant, the observed strong dependence of perturbative corrections on kinematic cuts underscores that extrapolation from a fiducial measurement to the total cross section is an extremely delicate matter, and calls ... mehr

 Zugehörige Institution(en) am KIT Institut für Theoretische Teilchenphysik (TTP) Publikationstyp Zeitschriftenaufsatz Jahr 2016 Sprache Englisch Identifikator ISSN: 0370-2693, 1873-2445KITopen ID: 1000066814 Erschienen in Physics letters / B Band 754 Seiten 275–280
KIT – Die Forschungsuniversität in der Helmholtz-Gemeinschaft KITopen Landing Page