Higgs production with large transverse momentum in hadronic collisions at next-to-leading order

TL;DR

This paper calculates the next-to-leading order QCD predictions for Higgs plus jet production at the LHC, showing a significant K-factor and confirming its potential as a measurable signal for Higgs detection in the 100-140 GeV range.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed NLO QCD analysis of Higgs plus jet production with transverse momentum and rapidity distributions at the LHC.

Findings

K-factor approximately 1.6, weakly dependent on kinematics

Confirms the viability of Higgs plus jet as a measurable signal

Supports the potential for testing the MSSM at the LHC

Abstract

Inclusive associated production of a light Higgs boson (m_H < m_t) with one jet in pp collisions is studied in next-to-leading order QCD. Transverse momentum (p_T < 30 GeV) and rapidity distributions of the Higgs boson are calculated for the LHC in the large top-quark mass limit. It is pointed out that, as much as in the case of inclusive Higgs production, the K-factor of this process is large (~1.6) and depends weakly on the kinematics in a wide range of transverse momentum and rapidity intervals. Our result confirms previous suggestions that the production channel p+p -> H+jet -> gamma+gamma+jet gives a measurable signal for Higgs production at the LHC in the mass range 100-140 GeV, crucial also for the ultimate test of the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model.