Alessandro Broggio

Limiting two-Higgs-doublet models

A bstractWe update the constraints on two-Higgs-doublet models (2HDMs) focusing on the parameter space relevant to explain the present muon g −2 anomaly, Δaμ, in four different types of models, type I, II, “lepton specific” (or X) and “flipped” (or Y). We show that the strong constraints provided by the electroweak precision data on the mass of the pseudoscalar Higgs, whose contribution may account for Δaμ, are evaded in regions where the charged scalar is degenerate with the heavy neutral one and the mixing angles α and β satisfy the Standard Model limit β − α ≈ π/2. We combine theoretical constraints from vacuum stability and perturbativity with direct and indirect bounds arising from collider and B physics. Possible future constraints from the electron g −2 are also considered. If the 126 GeV resonance discovered at the LHC is interpreted as the light CP-even Higgs boson of the 2HDM, we find that only models of type X can satisfy all the considered theoretical and experimental constraints.

Introduction to Soft-Collinear Effective Theory

Among resummation techniques for perturbative QCD in the context of collider and flavor physics, soft-collinear effective theory (SCET) has emerged as both a powerful and versatile tool, having been applied to a large variety of processes, from B-meson decays to jet production at the LHC. nThis book provides a concise, pedagogical introduction to this technique. It discusses the expansion of Feynman diagrams around the high-energy limit, followed by the explicit construction of the effective Lagrangian - first for a scalar theory, then for QCD. The underlying concepts are illustrated with the quark vector form factor at large momentum transfer, and the formalism is applied to compute soft-gluon resummation and to perform transverse-momentum resummation for the Drell-Yan process utilizing renormalization group evolution in SCET. Finally, the infrared structure of n-point gauge-theory amplitudes is analyzed by relating them to effective-theory operators. nThis text is suitable for graduate students and non-specialist researchers alike as it requires only basic knowledge of perturbative QCD.

To \({d}\), or not to \({d}\): recent developments and comparisons of regularization schemes

We give an introduction to several regularization schemes that deal with ultraviolet and infrared singularities appearing in higher-order computations in quantum field theories. Comparing the computation of simple quantities in the various schemes, we point out similarities and differences between them.

Associated production of a top pair and a Higgs boson beyond NLO.

A bstractWe consider soft gluon emission corrections to the production of a top-antitop pair in association with a Higgs boson at hadron colliders. In particular, we present a soft-gluon resummation formula for this production process and gather all elements needed to evaluate it at next-to-next-to-leading logarithmic order. We employ these results to obtain approximate next-to-next-to-leading order (NNLO) formulas, and implement them in a bespoke parton-level Monte Carlo program which can be used to calculate the total cross section along with arbitrary differential distributions. We use this tool to study the phenomenological impact of the approximate NNLO corrections, finding that they increase the total cross section and the differential distributions which we evaluated in this work.

NNLO hard functions in massless QCD

A bstractWe derive the hard functions for all 2 → 2 processes in massless QCD up to next-to-next-to-leading order (NNLO) in the strong coupling constant. By employing the known one- and two-loop helicity amplitudes for these processes, we obtain analytic expressions for the ultraviolet and infrared finite, minimally subtracted hard functions, which are matrices in color space. These hard functions will be useful in carrying out higher-order resummations in processes such as dijet and highly energetic top-quark pair production by means of soft-collinear effective theory methods.

NNLL resummation for the associated production of a top pair and a Higgs boson at the LHC

A bstractWe study the resummation of soft gluon emission corrections to the production of a top-antitop pair in association with a Higgs boson at the Large Hadron Collider. Starting from a soft-gluon resummation formula derived in previous work, we develop a bespoke parton-level Monte Carlo program which can be used to calculate the total cross section along with differential distributions. We use this tool to study the phenomenological impact of the resummation to next-to-next-to-leading logarithmic (NNLL) accuracy, finding that these corrections increase the total cross section and the differential distributions with respect to NLO calculations of the same observables.

Associated production of a top pair and a W boson at next-to-next-to-leading logarithmic accuracy

A bstractWe consider soft gluon emission corrections to the production of a top-antitop pair in association with a W boson at the Large Hadron Collider. We obtain a soft-gluon resummation formula for this production process which is valid up to next-to-next-to-leading logarithmic accuracy. We evaluate the soft gluon resummation formula in Mellin space by means of an in-house parton level Monte Carlo code which allows us to obtain predictions for the total cross section as well as for several differential distributions. We study the impact of the soft-gluon resummation corrections in comparison to fixed order calculations.

Associated production of a top pair and a Z boson at the LHC to NNLL accuracy

A bstractWe study the resummation of soft gluon emission corrections to the production of a top-antitop pair in association with a Z boson at the Large Hadron Collider to next-to-next-to-leading logarithmic accuracy. By means of an in-house parton level Monte Carlo code we evaluate the resummation formula for the total cross section and several differential distributions at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV, and we match these calculations to next-to-leading order results.

Pseudoscalar couplings in t t H production at NLO+NLL accuracy

We thank R. Frederix, Ossola, and N. Castro for useful discussions and for reading the manuscript. The in-house Monte Carlo code, which we developed and employed to evaluate the (differential) cross sections presented in this paper, was run on the computer cluster of the Center for Theoretical Physics at the Physics Department of New York City College of Technology. This work was supported by the CUNY Summer Collaborative Research Opportunity Grant No. 80232-20 17 and PSC-CUNY Grants No. 60061-00 48 and No. 0185-00 48. The work of A. F. is supported in part by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. PHY-1417354.

Master integrals for double real radiation emission in heavy-to-light quark decay

We evaluate analytically the master integrals for double real radiation emission in the