Merging WW and WW+jet with MINLO

TL;DR

This paper introduces a simulation program for W boson pair production with a jet, enhanced with the MINLO' method to achieve NLO accuracy for both inclusive and exclusive distributions without unphysical scales.

Contribution

It extends the MINLO' method to a genuine 2->2 process with virtual corrections, improving simulation accuracy for WW production with or without an associated jet.

Findings

Achieves NLO accuracy for inclusive WW and WW+jet distributions.

First application of MINLO' to a genuine 2->2 process with virtual corrections.

Provides a versatile simulation tool compatible with shower Monte Carlo generators.

Abstract

We present a simulation program for the production of a pair of W bosons in association with a jet, that can be used in conjunction with general-purpose shower Monte Carlo generators, according to the POWHEG method. We have further adapted and implemented the MINLO' method on top of the NLO calculation underlying our WW+jet generator. Thus, the resulting simulation achieves NLO accuracy not only for inclusive distributions in WW+jet production but also WW production, i.e. when the associated jet is not resolved, without the introduction of any unphysical merging scale. This work represents the first extension of the MINLO' method, in its original form, to the case of a genuine underlying 2->2 process, with non-trivial virtual corrections.