VBFNLO: A parton level Monte Carlo for processes with electroweak bosons -- Manual for Version 3.0

TL;DR

VBFNLO version 3.0 is a comprehensive Monte Carlo tool for simulating various electroweak boson processes in hadronic collisions at NLO, with new features including an interface, unitarization, additional processes, and parallelization.

Contribution

The paper introduces Version 3.0 of VBFNLO with major enhancements like BLHA interface, unitarization for dimension-8 operators, new production processes, and parallel computing capabilities.

Findings

Added BLHA interface for all processes

Implemented unitarization for VBS operators

Included new NLO and LO processes with full mass dependence

Abstract

VBFNLO is a flexible parton level Monte Carlo program for the simulation of vector boson fusion (VBF), QCD-induced single and double vector boson production plus two jets, and double and triple vector boson production (plus jet) in hadronic collisions at next-to-leading order (NLO) in the strong coupling constant, as well as Higgs boson plus two jet production via gluon fusion at the one-loop level. For the new version -- Version 3.0 -- several major enhancements have been included. An interface according to the Binoth Les Houches Accord (BLHA) has been added for all VBF and di/tri-boson processes including fully leptonic decays. For all dimension-8 operators affecting vector boson scattering (VBS) processes, a modified T-matrix unitarization procedure has been implemented. Several new production processes have been added, namely the VBS $Z\gamma jj$ and $\gamma \gamma jj$ processes at NLO, $\gamma \gamma jj $, $WWj$ and $ZZj$ production at NLO including the loop-induced gluon-fusion contributions and the gluon-fusion one-loop induced $\Phi jjj$ ($\Phi$ is a CP-even or CP-odd scalar boson) process at LO, retaining the full top-mass dependence. Finally, the code has been parallelized using OpenMPI.