Transverse Momentum Distributions from Effective Field Theory

TL;DR

This paper introduces a novel effective field theory approach to calculating transverse momentum distributions of Higgs and gauge bosons, improving the matching between low and high momentum regions and comparing results with experimental data.

Contribution

It develops a new factorization theorem using impact-parameter beam functions and an inverse soft function within Soft-Collinear Effective Theory, enhancing the accuracy of transverse momentum distribution calculations.

Findings

Improved numerical matching between low and high transverse momentum regions.

Next-to-leading logarithmic resummation results for Higgs and Z-boson distributions.

Comparison with Tevatron data shows good agreement.

Abstract

We review a new approach to calculating transverse momentum distributions of the Higgs and electroweak gauge bosons using the Soft-Collinear Effective Theory. We derive a factorization theorem for transverse momentum distributions in terms of newly-defined impact-parameter beam functions (iBFs) and an inverse soft function (iSF). The iBFs correspond to completely unintegrated parton distribution functions and provide interesting probes of momentum distributions within nucleons. The numerical matching between the low and high transverse momentum regions is improved in this approach with respect to standard techniques. We present results for next-to-leading logarithmic resummation for the Higgs and Z-boson distributions and give a comparison with Tevatron data.