Precise Predictions for W + 4 Jet Production at the Large Hadron Collider

TL;DR

This paper provides the first next-to-leading order QCD predictions for W + 4-jet production at the LHC, including cross sections and kinematic distributions, using advanced computational techniques.

Contribution

It introduces a novel NLO QCD calculation for W + 4 jets at the LHC employing on-shell methods and a leading-color approximation, advancing precision in collider predictions.

Findings

Accurate total cross sections and distributions for W + 4 jets at 7 TeV.

Validation of leading-color approximation within 3% accuracy.

Implementation of on-shell methods with BlackHat and SHERPA for complex calculations.

Abstract

We present the first next-to-leading order QCD results for W + 4-jet production at hadron colliders. Total cross sections, as well as distributions in the jet transverse momenta and in the total transverse energy H_T are provided for the initial LHC energy of \sqrt{s} = 7 TeV. We use a leading-color approximation, known to be accurate to 3% for W production with fewer jets. The virtual matrix elements and the most complicated real-emission matrix elements are handled by the BlackHat library, based on on-shell methods. The remaining parts of the calculation, including the integration over phase space, are performed by the SHERPA package.