Automatic spin-entangled decays of heavy resonances in Monte Carlo simulations

TL;DR

This paper introduces a versatile method for decaying narrow resonances in Monte Carlo simulations that maintains spin correlations and finite width effects, suitable for NLO-accurate production events.

Contribution

A new generic tool integrated into MadGraph that accurately decays resonances while preserving essential physical effects in Monte Carlo simulations.

Findings

Method effectively preserves spin correlations.

Accurately accounts for finite width effects.

Validated on top quark and Higgs production processes.

Abstract

We present a general method that allows one to decay narrow resonances in Les Houches Monte Carlo events in an efficient and accurate way. The procedure preserves both spin correlation and finite width effects to a very good accuracy, and is therefore particularly suited for the decay of resonances in production events generated at next-to-leading-order accuracy. The method is implemented as a generic tool in the MadGraph framework, giving access to a very large set of possible applications. We illustrate the validity of the method and the code by applying it to the case of single top and top quark pair production, and show its capabilities on the case of top quark pair production in association with a Higgs boson.