Differential N$^3$LO QCD corrections to charged current production at the LHC

TL;DR

This paper calculates third-order QCD corrections to W boson production at the LHC, enhancing the precision of theoretical predictions crucial for interpreting experimental measurements like the W mass.

Contribution

It provides the first N$^3$LO QCD corrections to the rapidity and transverse mass distributions in charged current Drell-Yan processes.

Findings

N$^3$LO corrections significantly reduce theoretical uncertainties.

Results are relevant for high-precision W mass measurements.

Study assesses uncertainties from electroweak inputs and PDFs.

Abstract

Charged current Drell-Yan production at hadron colliders is a benchmark electroweak process. A recent measurement of the W boson mass by the CDF experiment displays a large deviation from the Standard Model prediction. To enable precision phenomenology for this process, we compute the third-order (N$^3$LO) QCD corrections to the rapidity distribution in W boson production and to the transverse mass distribution of its decay products. We study kinematic regions relevant for the LHC experiments and assess the numerical magnitude of uncertainties from electroweak input parameters and parton distribution functions.