Diphoton production in vector-boson scattering at the LHC at next-to-leading order QCD

Abstract

In this paper, we present results at next-to-leading order (NLO) QCD for photon pair production in association with two jets via vector boson scattering within the Standard Model (SM), and also in an effective field theory framework with anomalous gauge coupling effects via bosonic dimension-6 and 8 operators. We observe that, compared to other processes in the class of two electroweak (EW) vector boson production in association with two jets, more exclusive cuts are needed in order to suppress the SM QCD-induced background channel. As expected, the NLO QCD corrections reduce the scale uncertainties considerably. Using a well-motivated dynamical scale choice, we find moderate K-factors for the EW-induced process while the QCD-induced channel receives much larger corrections. Furthermore, we observe that applying a cut of ∆φ cut j 2 γ 1 < 2.5 for the second hardest jet and the hardest photon helps to increase the signal significance and reduces the impact of higher-order QCD corrections.

Les Houches 2021—physics at TeV colliders: report on the standard model precision wishlist

“…γγ + 1j: LH19 status: NLO QCD corrections calculated long ago [744,745], later also for γγ + 2j [746][747][748] and γγ + 3j [747]; photon-isolation effects studied at NLO QCD [745]; NLO QCD corrections for the EW production of γγ + 2j [749]; NLO EW corrections available for γγj( j) [289];…”

Vector-Boson Scattering at the LHC: unravelling the Electroweak sector

“…We note that the γγ case, which has two jets and two photons in the final state, has also been studied theoretically at NLO QCD for the signal [206] and the background [207][208][209]. Unfortunately, as opposed to W ± γjj and Zγjj this EW production has not been measured yet at the LHC, due to the overwhelming multijet background.…”