Squark anti-squark pair production at the LHC: the electroweak contribution

TL;DR

This paper calculates the complete next-to-leading order electroweak contributions to squark-anti-squark pair production at the LHC, highlighting their significance in cross sections and distributions across different supersymmetric scenarios.

Contribution

It provides the first comprehensive NLO electroweak correction calculation for diagonal squark-anti-squark production at the LHC, extending previous leading-order analyses.

Findings

NLO electroweak contributions are significant compared to lowest-order terms.

Electroweak effects impact cross sections and distributions.

Results vary across different supersymmetric benchmark scenarios.

Abstract

We present the complete NLO electroweak contribution of $\mathcal{O}(\alpha^2_s \alpha)$ to the production of diagonal squark--anti-squark pairs in proton--proton collisions. Compared to the lowest-order $\mathcal{O}(\alpha_s\alpha + \alpha^2)$ electroweak terms, the NLO contributions are also significant. We discuss the LO and NLO electroweak effects in cross sections and distributions at the LHC for the production of squarks different from top squarks, in various supersymmetric benchmark scenarios.