Massive Boson Production at Small q_T in Soft-Collinear Effective Theory

TL;DR

This paper develops a theoretical framework using soft-collinear effective theory to accurately predict small transverse-momentum distributions of electroweak bosons and Higgs, incorporating resummation of large logarithms and non-perturbative effects.

Contribution

It introduces a novel approach to resumming large logarithms in small q_T regions and accounts for the collinear anomaly's non-perturbative scale, improving predictions for boson production.

Findings

Predictions agree well with Tevatron and LHC data

Resummation reduces theoretical uncertainties

Non-perturbative scale q_* stabilizes calculations

Abstract

We study the differential cross sections for electroweak gauge-boson and Higgs production at small and very small transverse-momentum q_T. Large logarithms are resummed using soft-collinear effective theory. The collinear anomaly generates a non-perturbative scale q_*, which protects the processes from receiving large long-distance hadronic contributions. A numerical comparison of our predictions with data on the transverse-momentum distribution in Z-boson production at the Tevatron and LHC is given.