Modelling top-quark decays in $t\bar{t}t\bar{t}$ production at the LHC

TL;DR

This paper compares fixed-order NLO QCD predictions with parton-shower methods for top-quark decay modeling in four-top production at the LHC, analyzing spin correlations and matrix element corrections.

Contribution

It provides a detailed comparison of NLO QCD and parton-shower approaches, including spin correlations and matrix element effects, for top-quark decay modeling in four-top production.

Findings

NLO QCD corrections preserve spin correlations in top decays.

Parton-shower methods approximate higher-order effects with matrix element corrections.

Differences observed in differential cross-section predictions at 13.6 TeV.

Abstract

We compare the fixed-order NLO QCD predictions for the $pp\to t\bar{t}t\bar{t}+X$ process in the $4\ell$ decay channel with the parton-shower based results obtained with the POWHEG and MC@NLO matching methods. In the first case, NLO QCD corrections are consistently included in both the $t\bar{t}t\bar{t}$ production step and the decays of the four top quarks, preserving all spin correlations. In the second approach, higher-order effects in top-quark decays with approximate spin correlations are simulated in the PYTHIA parton-shower framework. Additionally, we analyse the impact of including the so-called matrix element corrections in top-quark decays in both parton-shower matched predictions. The comparison is performed at the integrated and differential fiducial cross-section level for the LHC centre-of-mass energy of $\sqrt{s}=13.6$ TeV.