NLO QCD corrections to WWbb production at hadron colliders

TL;DR

This paper presents a comprehensive calculation of NLO QCD corrections to WWbb production at hadron colliders, improving the precision of top-antitop pair production modeling including decay, interference, and background effects.

Contribution

It provides the first complete NLO QCD calculation for WWbb production, incorporating off-shell effects, interferences, and non-resonant backgrounds.

Findings

Enhanced accuracy in top-antitop production predictions.

Numerical results for Tevatron and LHC energies.

Improved theoretical understanding of WWbb processes.

Abstract

Top-antitop quark pairs belong to the most abundantly produced and precisely measurable heavy-particle signatures at hadron colliders and allow for crucial tests of the Standard Model and new-physics searches. Here we report on the calculation of the next-to-leading order (NLO) QCD corrections to hadronic WWbb production, which provides a complete NLO description of the production of top-antitop pairs and their subsequent decay into W bosons and bottom quarks, including interferences, off-shell effects, and non-resonant backgrounds. Numerical predictions for the Tevatron and the LHC are presented.