Next-to-leading order QCD predictions for top-quark pair production with up to two jets merged with a parton shower
Stefan Höche (SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, Menlo Park, CA, 94025, USA)
; Frank Krauss (Institute for Particle Physics Phenomenology, Durham University, Durham, DH1 3LE, UK); Philipp Maierhöfer (Physik-Institut, Universität Zürich, Zürich, CH-8057, Switzerland); Stefano Pozzorini (Physik-Institut, Universität Zürich, Zürich, CH-8057, Switzerland); Marek Schönherr (Institute for Particle Physics Phenomenology, Durham University, Durham, DH1 3LE, UK); et al - Show all 6 authors
We present differential cross sections for the production of top-quark pairs in conjunction with up to two jets, computed at next-to-leading order in perturbative QCD and consistently merged with a parton shower in the S herpa +O pen L oops framework. Top quark decays including spin correlation effects are taken into account at leading order accuracy. The calculation yields a unified description of top-pair plus multi-jet production, and detailed results are presented for various key observables at the Large Hadron Collider. A large improvement with respect to the multi-jet merging approach at leading order is found for the total transverse energy spectrum, which plays a prominent role in searches for physics beyond the Standard Model.
