SciPost Submission Page
Theoretical modeling of QCD radiation in off-shell Higgs production through gluon fusion
by Rafael Coelho Lopes de Sá, Martina Javurkova, Matteo Lazzeretti, Raoul Röntsch
Submission summary
| Authors (as registered SciPost users): | Rafael Coelho Lopes de Sa · Martina Javurkova · Matteo Lazzeretti |
| Submission information | |
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| Preprint Link: | https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.17022v2 (pdf) |
| Date accepted: | Aug. 26, 2025 |
| Date submitted: | Aug. 12, 2025, 2:19 p.m. |
| Submitted by: | Rafael Coelho Lopes de Sa |
| Submitted to: | SciPost Physics Community Reports |
| for consideration in Collection: |
| Ontological classification | |
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| Academic field: | Physics |
| Specialties: |
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| Approach: | Phenomenological |
Abstract
The measurement of the Higgs boson width is a critical test of the Standard Model, with significant implications for understanding electroweak symmetry breaking. Direct measurements are limited by detector resolution, but it can be measured with greater precision through a combined analysis of on-shell and off-shell Higgs boson production. While results for on-shell production have been computed to a very high accuracy, theoretical predictions for off-shell Higgs boson production are not as well controlled due to the breakdown of the heavy-top approximation and the large interference with non-resonant amplitudes. Seeking to understand and improve the theoretical control, we compare leading-order and next-to-leading-order plus parton shower differential cross-sections for signal, background, and full physical processes in off-shell Higgs boson production at the Large Hadron Collider, using Powheg, MadGraph, and Sherpa. We analyze the impact of higher-order quantum chromodynamics effects and theoretical uncertainties, highlighting differences between predictions using jet merging with parton showers, and those from next-to-leading order computations matched to parton showers. The results provide insights for improving theoretical predictions and their application to experimental measurements in the future.
Author comments upon resubmission
We thank SciPost for the thoughtful reviews from your referees.
We have answered the questions from Referee 2 and their request for modifications. The report from Referee 1 did not have any question or request for modification.
With the minor changes (summarized below), we hope that the paper is ready for publication.
With best regards,
-- Rafael, for the authors.
List of changes
Only two changes were made:
- On p.6, to clarify how the k-factors are calculated, we modified:
"Looking at the NLO values, we observe a substantial increase..." to "Looking at the NLO values, and comparing these to the LO value in Table 1, we observe a substantial increase..."
- On p.4, to clarify the capabilities of the MadGraph simulation, we added the following footnote:
"We note that the CKKW-L scheme is not available in MadGraph for loop-induced processes, such as those considered in this paper."
Published as SciPost Phys. Comm. Rep. 12 (2025)