Implications of QCD radiative corrections on high-pT Higgs searches

TL;DR

This paper analyzes how next-to-leading order QCD radiative corrections influence high-pT Higgs boson searches at the LHC, emphasizing the importance of accounting for QCD radiation effects in experimental strategies.

Contribution

It provides a detailed evaluation of NLO QCD corrections on Higgs boson reconstruction methods, comparing fat-jet analysis with current CMS strategies at different LHC energies.

Findings

QCD radiation significantly affects Higgs mass peak reconstruction.

Final-state QCD effects are sizable and must be properly included.

Differences between analysis methods impact search sensitivities.

Abstract

We discuss the effect of next-to-leading order (NLO) QCD corrections to the Higgsstrahlung process, where the Higgs boson decays to bottom quarks, using a partonic-level fully differential code. First we evaluate the impact of initial- and final-state gluon radiation on the reconstruction of a mass peak with the fat-jet analysis in the boosted regime at the LHC with sqrt(s) = 14 TeV as proposed in Butterworth et al. (2008) [1]. Finally we study the current CMS search strategy for this channel and compare it to the fat-jet procedure at the LHC with sqrt(s) = 8 TeV. Both show that final-state QCD radiation has a sizable effect and should be taken properly into account.