Les Houches Physics at TeV Colliders 2005, Standard Model and Higgs working group: Summary report

TL;DR

This report summarizes the activities of the 'SM and Higgs' working group at the 2005 Les Houches workshop, covering Standard Model processes, Higgs production channels, theoretical calculations, and simulation tools relevant for TeV collider physics.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive overview of experimental and theoretical studies on Standard Model and Higgs physics, including background processes, uncertainties, higher-order calculations, and Monte Carlo simulations.

Findings

Analysis of Standard Model backgrounds for Higgs searches

Assessment of uncertainties due to Parton Density Functions and underlying events

Review of advanced QCD calculations and Monte Carlo tools

Abstract

This Report summarises the activities of the "SM and Higgs" working group for the Workshop "Physics at TeV Colliders", Les Houches, France, 2-20 May, 2005. On the one hand, we performed a variety of experimental and theoretical studies on standard candles (such as W, Z, and ttbar production), treating them either as proper signals of known physics, or as backgrounds to unknown physics; we also addressed issues relevant to those non-perturbative or semi-perturbative ingredients, such as Parton Density Functions and Underlying Events, whose understanding will be crucial for a proper simulation of the actual events taking place in the detectors. On the other hand, several channels for the production of the Higgs, or involving the Higgs, have been considered in some detail. The report is structured into four main parts. The first one deals with Standard Model physics, except the Higgs. A variety of arguments are treated here, from full simulation of processes constituting a background to Higgs production, to studies of uncertainties due to PDFs and to extrapolations of models for underlying events, from small-$x$ issues to electroweak corrections which may play a role in vector boson physics. The second part of the report treats Higgs physics from the point of view of the signal. In the third part, reviews are presented on the current status of multi-leg, next-to-leading order and of next-to-next-to-leading order QCD computations. Finally, the fourth part deals with the use of Monte Carlos for simulation of LHC physics.