NLO Higgs+jet at large transverse momenta including top quark mass effects

TL;DR

This paper provides a precise next-to-leading order calculation of Higgs plus jet production at large transverse momenta, including finite top quark mass effects, improving accuracy in high-energy regions relevant for collider experiments.

Contribution

It introduces a novel NLO calculation incorporating finite top quark mass effects at high transverse momenta, covering a wider kinematic range with minimal uncertainty.

Findings

Finite top mass effects are accurately included below 225 GeV and above 500 GeV.

Rescaling approach is validated as an excellent approximation near the top pair production threshold.

The calculation is implemented in the MCFM Monte Carlo code, enhancing practical applicability.

Abstract

We present a next-to-leading order calculation of H+jet in gluon fusion including the effect of a finite top quark mass $m_t$ at large transverse momenta. Using the recently published two-loop amplitudes in the high energy expansion and our previous setup that includes finite $m_t$ effects in a low energy expansion, we are able to obtain $m_t$-finite results for transverse momenta below 225 GeV and above 500 GeV with negligible remaining top quark mass uncertainty. The only remaining region that has to rely on the common leading order rescaling approach is the threshold region $\sqrt{\hat s}\simeq 2m_t$. We demonstrate that this rescaling provides an excellent approximation in the high $p_T$ region. Our calculation settles the issue of top quark mass effects at large transverse momenta. It is implemented in the parton level Monte Carlo code MCFM and is publicly available immediately in version 8.2.