Universality of next-to-leading power threshold effects for colourless final states in hadronic collisions

• Published in: arXiv.org
• Main Authors: V Del Duca, Laenen, E, Magnea, L, Vernazza, L, White, C D
• Format: Paper Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Ithaca Cornell University Library, arXiv.org 13.06.2017
• Subjects: Amplitudes; Bosons; Dependence; Gauge theory; Higgs bosons; Pair production; Physics - High Energy Physics - Phenomenology
• ISSN: 2331-8422
• DOI: 10.48550/arxiv.1706.04018

We consider the production of an arbitrary number of colour-singlet particles near partonic threshold, and show that next-to-leading order cross sections for this class of processes have a simple universal form at next-to-leading power (NLP) in the energy of the emitted gluon radiation. Our analysis relies on a recently derived factorisation formula for NLP threshold effects at amplitude level, and therefore applies both if the leading-order process is tree-level and if it is loop-induced. It holds for differential distributions as well. The results can furthermore be seen as applications of recently derived next-to-soft theorems for gauge theory amplitudes. We use our universal expression to re-derive known results for the production of up to three Higgs bosons at NLO in the large top mass limit, and for the hadro-production of a pair of electroweak gauge bosons. Finally, we present new analytic results for Higgs boson pair production at NLO and NLP, with exact top-mass dependence.