Quark Mass Effects in Higgs Production

TL;DR

This paper investigates how finite top and bottom quark masses influence Higgs production via gluon fusion, providing detailed comparisons of renormalisation schemes and new differential cross section predictions.

Contribution

It offers a comprehensive analysis of quark mass effects on Higgs production, including novel differential cross section predictions and insights into renormalisation scheme impacts.

Findings

Significant reduction in scale uncertainties.

Comparison of $ar{MS}$ and on-shell mass schemes.

New predictions for Higgs rapidity distributions.

Abstract

We examine the effect of finite top- and bottom-quark masses on the Higgs production cross section in the gluon-gluon fusion channel. We employ both $\overline{\text{MS}}$ and on-shell renormalisation for the quark masses and provide a thorough comparison. Furthermore, we explore alternative treatments of quark masses, in particular in the four-flavour scheme, and investigate their impact on the cross section. Our work also presents novel predictions for differential cross sections in the Higgs rapidity. The results lead to a significant reduction of scale uncertainties, and our analysis enables us to offer well-grounded recommendations for future research in this area.