NNLO QCD corrections to weak boson fusion Higgs boson production in the $H \to b\bar b$ and $H \to WW^* \to 4l$ decay channels

TL;DR

This paper calculates NNLO QCD corrections to Higgs production via weak boson fusion, analyzing their impact on decay channels to bottom quarks and W bosons with leptonic decays, enabling more precise cross section predictions.

Contribution

It provides the first NNLO QCD correction calculations for weak boson fusion Higgs production including decay channels, improving the accuracy of theoretical predictions.

Findings

Enhanced precision in fiducial cross section calculations.

Quantified impact of fiducial cuts on QCD corrections.

Improved theoretical understanding of Higgs decay channels.

Abstract

We compute the next-to-next-to-leading order QCD corrections to Higgs boson production in weak boson fusion followed by its decay to a $b\bar b$ pair or to a pair of leptonically-decaying $W$ bosons. Our calculation allows us to compute realistic fiducial cross sections and assess the impact of fiducial cuts applied to the Higgs boson decay products on the magnitude of QCD radiative corrections in weak boson fusion.