Diphoton isolation studies

TL;DR

This paper analyzes how different photon isolation criteria affect diphoton production in hadron collisions, with implications for Higgs boson studies and experimental comparisons.

Contribution

It provides a detailed comparison of standard and smooth cone isolation methods, highlighting their advantages and disadvantages for theory and experiment.

Findings

Comparison of isolation criteria impacts on diphoton cross sections

Recommendations for optimal isolation parameters in Higgs analyses

Guidelines for matching theoretical predictions with experimental data

Abstract

We consider the effects of the photon isolation on the production of a pair of photons in hadron collisions. We study in detail advantages and disadvantages of the standard and smooth cone isolation criteria, concerning the theory and the experiment. We put special interest in those kinematic configurations related to recent Higgs boson studies and searches, and finally we show the set of isolation parameters proposed by the Les Houches accord 2013, which serves as a guide to understand the comparison of the theoretical predictions with the data.