NLO QCD and EW corrections to vector-boson scattering into ZZ at the LHC

TL;DR

This paper provides the first comprehensive calculation of electroweak and QCD corrections for vector-boson scattering into ZZ at the LHC, revealing significant effects on cross sections and distributions.

Contribution

It introduces the first full NLO electroweak and QCD correction calculation for VBS into ZZ, including all off-shell and interference effects, with detailed analysis of their impact.

Findings

Electroweak corrections reduce the cross section by 16%.

QCD corrections increase the cross section by 24%.

Corrections significantly distort differential distributions.

Abstract

We present the first calculation of the full next-to-leading-order electroweak and QCD corrections for vector-boson scattering (VBS) into a pair of Z bosons at the LHC. We consider specifically the process ${\rm pp\to e^{+}e^{-}\mu^{+}\mu^{-}jj}+X$ at orders $\mathcal{O}(\alpha^7)$ and $\mathcal{O}(\alpha_s\alpha^6)$ and take all off-shell and interference contributions into account. Owing to the presence of enhanced Sudakov logarithms, the electroweak corrections amount to $-16\%$ of the leading-order electroweak fiducial cross section and induce significant shape distortions of differential distributions. The QCD corrections on the other hand are larger ($+24\%$) than typical QCD corrections in VBS. This originates from considering the full computation including tri-boson contributions in a rather inclusive phase space. We also provide a leading-order analysis of all contributions to the cross section for ${\rm pp \to e^{+}e^{-}\mu^{+}\mu^{-}jj}+X$ in a realistic setup.