NLO QCD effects on angular observables in $e^-p \to e^-(\nu_e)Hj$ in presence of non-standard $HVV$ couplings

TL;DR

This paper calculates next-to-leading-order QCD corrections for Higgs plus jet production in electron-proton collisions, improving theoretical precision for probing non-standard Higgs-vector boson couplings at future colliders.

Contribution

It provides the first fully differential NLO QCD predictions for Higgs plus jet production in ep collisions, including non-standard $HVV$ interactions, with detailed analysis of angular observables.

Findings

NLO corrections modestly affect total cross sections with reduced uncertainties.

Angular distributions show significant NLO effects, especially in certain kinematic bins.

Corrections in azimuthal correlations are similar for SM and non-standard couplings.

Abstract

The single Higgs production in neutral-current (NC) and charged-current (CC) processes at an electron-proton ($ep$) collider is a useful channel to probe new physics effects in the Higgs coupling to vector boson ($HVV$). In this context, observables sensitive to non-standard couplings previously studied at leading order require improved theoretical precision through the inclusion of radiative corrections. In this work, we present a fully differential Higgs plus one jet production at next-to-leading-order (NLO) accuracy in QCD for both the NC and CC processes. For the proposed Large Hadron electron Collider (LHeC) configuration, with a 60~GeV electron beam and a 7~TeV proton beam, the total cross sections receive modest corrections with significantly reduced scale uncertainties. We find that in several kinematic distributions which are relevant to the analysis of $HVV$ couplings, the NLO K-factors are not flat. Within the Standard Model, the polar angle of the electron (for NC) and the azimuthal angular correlation (for both NC and CC processes) receive maximum corrections in the range of 8-10\% in certain bins. We also compute NLO QCD corrections in the presence of non-standard $HVV$ interactions. The corrections in the azimuthal angular correlations are similar to the standard model predictions. For the polar angle of the electron, the corrections are sensitive to the nature of the $HVV$ coupling.