Electroweak Radiative Corrections in Precision LHC Measurements of $W^\pm/Z^0$+jets

TL;DR

This paper computes electroweak corrections to W/Z+jets production at 13 TeV, demonstrating that including EW radiations in Herwig 7 improves agreement with LHC data and affects EW-sensitive event simulations.

Contribution

It introduces a comprehensive calculation of electroweak corrections in Herwig 7, including virtual and real emissions, and compares predictions with experimental data to validate the new parton shower implementation.

Findings

Inclusion of EW radiations improves Herwig 7 predictions.

Parton shower-induced real EW emissions can outweigh virtual corrections.

Enhanced modeling of EW-sensitive events in LHC simulations.

Abstract

We calculate the fiducial and differential $W^{\pm}/Z^0+jet(s)$ production cross-sections in the presence of electroweak (EW) corrections through virtual loop contributions to the matrix elements (MEs) of the processes and real partonic cascade emissions. The calculations are carried out for proton-proton collisions at $\sqrt{s} = 13$ TeV, using Herwig 7 general-purpose Monte-Carlo event generator with leading-order or next-to-leading-order MEs that are interfaced with different parton-shower configurations. The results are compared with precision experimental measurements from ATLAS collaboration and with similar predictions within the $k_t$-factorisation framework, providing a test for the validity of the newly-implemented QCD$\oplus$QED$\oplus$EW parton shower in Herwig 7. It is shown that the inclusion of EW radiations in the parton shower simulations improves Herwig 7's predictions in describing the experimental data. Additionally, the inclusion of parton shower-induced real EW emissions can take precedence over the incorporation of virtual EW corrections for the simulation of EW-sensitive events.