ZZ production at the LHC: fiducial cross sections and distributions in NNLO QCD

TL;DR

This paper presents a complete NNLO QCD calculation for ZZ production at the LHC, showing a 15% increase in cross section and improved data agreement, with minimal impact on distribution shapes.

Contribution

The first full NNLO QCD calculation for ZZ production in the LHC fiducial region, providing precise cross sections and distributions.

Findings

NNLO corrections increase the fiducial cross section by about 15%.

NNLO corrections improve agreement with CMS data for the $ riangle ext{Φ}$ distribution.

Shape of kinematic distributions is minimally affected by NNLO corrections.

Abstract

We consider QCD radiative corrections to the production of four charged leptons in the ZZ signal region at the LHC. We report on the complete calculation of the next-to-next-to-leading order (NNLO) corrections to this process in QCD perturbation theory. Numerical results are presented for $\sqrt{s}=8$ TeV, using typical selection cuts applied by the ATLAS and CMS collaborations. The NNLO corrections increase the NLO fiducial cross section by about $15\%$, and they have a relatively small impact on the shape of the considered kinematical distributions. In the case of the $\Delta\Phi$ distribution of the two Z candidates, the NNLO corrections improve the agreement of the theoretical prediction with the CMS data.