The Higgs Transverse Momentum Distribution at NNLL and its Theoretical Errors

TL;DR

This paper computes the Higgs transverse momentum distribution at NNLL and NNLO accuracy, using the rapidity renormalization group to smoothly connect resummed and fixed order results, and analyzes the associated theoretical uncertainties.

Contribution

It introduces a novel application of the rapidity renormalization group to improve the matching of resummed and fixed order calculations for the Higgs pT distribution.

Findings

The central value differs from previous results outside the error band.

The RRG profile enables a smooth transition between regimes.

The analysis includes detailed scale dependence and rapidity scale effects.

Abstract

In this letter, we present the NNLL-NNLO transverse momentum Higgs distribution arising from gluon fusion. In the regime $p_\perp\ll m_H$ we include the resummation of the large logs at next to next-to leading order and then match on to the $\alpha_s^2$ fixed order result near $p_\perp \sim m_h$. By utilizing the rapidity renormalization group (RRG) we are able to smoothly match between the resummed, small $p_\perp$ regime and the fixed order regime. We give a detailed discussion of the scale dependence of the result including an analysis of the rapidity scale dependence. Our central value differs from previous results, in the transition region as well as the tail, by an amount which is outside the error band. This difference is due to the fact that the RRG profile allows us to smoothly turn off the resummation.