Higgs bosons with large transverse momentum at the LHC

TL;DR

This paper calculates next-to-leading order QCD corrections for Higgs boson production with high transverse momentum at the LHC, reducing theoretical uncertainties and aiding new physics searches.

Contribution

It combines recent two-loop amplitude calculations with numerical one-loop computations to improve the accuracy of high-$p_ op$ Higgs production predictions.

Findings

QCD corrections are large but similar to point-like coupling case.

Results reduce theoretical uncertainties in high-$p_ op$ Higgs predictions.

Enhances potential for new physics searches at high transverse momentum.

Abstract

We compute the next-to-leading order QCD corrections to the production of Higgs bosons with large transverse momentum $p_\perp \gg 2 m_t$ at the LHC. To accomplish this, we combine the two-loop amplitudes for processes $gg \to Hg$, $qg \to Hq$ and $q \bar q \to H g$, recently computed in the approximation of nearly massless top quarks, with the numerical calculation of the squared one-loop amplitudes for $gg \to Hgg$, $q g \to H q g$ and $q \bar q \to Hgg$ processes. The latter computation is performed with OpenLoops. We find that the QCD corrections to the Higgs transverse momentum distribution at very high $p_\perp$ are large but quite similar to the QCD corrections obtained for point-like $Hgg$ coupling. Our result removes one of the largest sources of theoretical uncertainty in the description of high-$p_\perp$ Higgs boson production and opens a way to use the high-$p_\perp$ region to search for physics beyond the Standard Model.