Precise predictions for Higgs-boson production in association with top quarks

TL;DR

This paper provides precise NLO QCD predictions for Higgs production with top quarks at the LHC, analyzing backgrounds, interference effects, and kinematic distributions to improve understanding of this process.

Contribution

It presents the first detailed NLO QCD analysis of Higgs production with top quarks including background and interference effects, with improved accuracy and reduced scale dependence.

Findings

Interference effects reduce cross-section by 5%

NLO corrections increase cross-section by 17% (K factor)

Scale dependence decreases from 30% to 5% at NLO

Abstract

We analyse the production of a Higgs boson in association with a top--antitop-quark pair in the Standard Model at the LHC. Considering the final state consisting of four b jets, two jets, one identified charged lepton and missing energy, we examine the irreducible background for the production rate and several kinematical distributions. While ttH production and decay is roughly a fourth of the full process for the final state specified above, ttbb production constitutes the main contribution with about $92\%$. Surprisingly, interference effects result in a reduction of the cross-section by five per cent. Furthermore, we consider NLO QCD corrections for the production of a Higgs boson, two charged leptons, two neutrinos, and two b jets. We discuss the size of the corrections and the scale dependence for the integrated cross section and different distributions. For the integrated cross section we find a $K$ factor of 1.17 and a reduction of the scale dependence from $30\%$ at leading order to $5\%$ at next-to-leading order.