NLO QCD corrections to the electroweak production of a Higgs boson pair in the quark-antiquark channel

TL;DR

This paper calculates the next-to-leading order QCD corrections to Higgs boson pair production via electroweak processes in quark-antiquark channels, providing analytic two-loop amplitudes and highlighting their impact on differential observables.

Contribution

It presents the first analytic two-loop amplitude calculation for NLO QCD corrections in this electroweak Higgs pair production process.

Findings

Total cross section correction is below 1% compared to gluon channel.

Differential observables can be affected by up to 10%.

The results are relevant for precise LHC data analysis.

Abstract

Higgs boson pair production in the massless quark-antiquark channel proceeds at leading order (LO) via electroweak boson loops. We calculate the next-to-leading order QCD corrections to this process. For the corresponding two-loop amplitudes, an analytic representation has been achieved. Even though the size of this contribution at the level of total cross sections is below 1% compared to the LO gluon channel, the effect on differential observables can be in the 10% range and therefore this contribution should be taken into account when comparing to LHC data.