Hadronic production of $W$ and $Z$ bosons at large transverse momentum

TL;DR

This paper introduces a new factorization approach in QCD for accurately predicting high transverse momentum $W$ and $Z$ boson production, effectively resumming large logarithms and improving theoretical predictions at colliders.

Contribution

The paper develops a modified factorization formalism that systematically resums large fragmentation logarithms for $W$ and $Z$ production at high $p_T$, enhancing prediction accuracy.

Findings

NLO predictions are about 5% larger in normalization.

Improved convergence and reduced scale dependence.

Applicable to LHC and future 100 TeV colliders.

Abstract

We introduce a modified factorization formalism in quantum chromodynamics for hadronic production of $W$ and $Z$ bosons at large transverse momentum $p_T$. When $p_T$ is much larger than the invariant mass $Q$ of the vector boson, this new factorization formalism systematically resums the large fragmentation logarithms, $\alpha_s^m\ln^m(p_T^2/Q^2)$, to all orders in the strong coupling $\alpha_s$. Using our modified factorization formalism, we calculate the next-to-leading order (NLO) predictions for $W$ and $Z$ boson production at high $p_T$ at the CERN Large Hadron Collider and at a future 100 TeV proton-proton collider. Our NLO results are about $5\%$ larger in normalization, and they show improved convergence and moderate reduction of the scale variation compared to the NLO predictions derived in a conventional fixed-order perturbative expansion.