Valentin Ahrens

Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz, Mainz, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany

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Publications (11)5.83 Total impact

  • Article: Forward-Backward and Charge Asymmetries in the Standard Model
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    ABSTRACT: This talk reviews the Standard Model predictions for the top-quark forward backward and charge asymmetries measured at the Tevatron and at the LHC.
    12/2012;
  • Article: Structure of Infrared Singularities of Gauge-Theory Amplitudes at Three and Four Loops
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    ABSTRACT: The infrared divergences of massless n-parton scattering amplitudes can be derived from the anomalous dimension of n-jet operators in soft-collinear effective theory. Up to three-loop order, the latter has been shown to have a very simple structure: it contains pairwise color-dipole interactions among the external partons, governed by the cusp anomalous dimension and a logarithm of the kinematic invariants s_{ij}, plus a possible three-loop correlation involving four particles, which is described by a yet unknown function of conformal cross ratios of kinematic invariants. This function is constrained by two-particle collinear limits and by the known behavior of amplitudes in the high-energy limit. We construct a class of relatively simple functions satisfying these constraints. We also extend the analysis to four-loop order, finding that three additional four-particle correlations and a single five-particle correlation appear, which again are governed by functions of conformal cross ratios. Our results suggest that the dipole conjecture, which states that only two-particle color-dipole correlations appear in the anomalous dimension, may need to be generalized. We present a weaker form of the conjecture, stating that to all orders in perturbation theory corrections to the dipole formula are governed by functions of conformal cross ratios, and are O(1/N_c^2) suppressed relative to the dipole term. If true, this conjecture implies that the cusp anomalous dimension obeys Casimir scaling to all orders in perturbation theory.
    08/2012;
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    Article: RG-improved single-particle inclusive cross sections and forward-backward asymmetry in production at hadron colliders
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    ABSTRACT: We use techniques from soft-collinear effective theory (SCET) to derive renormalization-group improved predictions for single-particle inclusive (1PI) observables in top-quark pair production at hadron colliders. In particular, we study the top-quark transverse-momentum and rapidity distributions, the forward-backward asymmetry at the Tevatron, and the total cross section at NLO + NNLL order in resummed perturbation theory and at approximate NNLO in fixed order. We also perform a detailed analysis of power corrections to the leading terms in the threshold expansion of the partonic hard-scattering kernels. We conclude that, although the threshold expansion in 1PI kinematics is susceptible to numerically significant power corrections, its predictions for the total cross section are in good agreement with those obtained by integrating the top-pair invariant-mass distribution in pair invariant-mass kinematics, as long as a certain set of subleading terms appearing naturally within the SCET formalism is included. KeywordsHeavy Quark Physics–Hadronic Colliders–QCD
    Journal of High Energy Physics 04/2012; 2011(9):1-55. · 5.83 Impact Factor
  • Article: Top-pair forward-backward asymmetry beyond next-to-leading order
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    ABSTRACT: We make use of recent results in effective theory and higher-order perturbative calculations to improve the theoretical predictions of the QCD contribution to the top-quark pair production forward-backward asymmetry at the Tevatron. In particular, we supplement the fixed-order next-to-leading order calculation with higher-order corrections from soft-gluon resummation at next-to next-to-leading order accuracy performed in two different kinematic schemes, which allows us to make improved predictions for the asymmetry in the pp̅ and tt̅ rest frames as a function of the rapidity and invariant mass of the tt̅ pair. Furthermore, we provide binned results which can be compared with the recent measurements of the forward-backward asymmetry in events with a large pair invariant mass or rapidity difference. Finally, we calculate at NLO+NNLL order the top-quark charge asymmetry at the LHC as a function of a lower rapidity cutoff for the top and antitop quarks.
    Phys. Rev. D. 10/2011; 84(7).
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    Article: The top-pair forward-backward asymmetry beyond NLO
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    ABSTRACT: We make use of recent results in effective theory and higher-order perturbative calculations to improve the theoretical predictions of the QCD contribution to the top-quark pair production forward-backward asymmetry at the Tevatron. In particular, we supplement the fixed-order NLO calculation with higher-order corrections from soft gluon resummation at NNLL accuracy performed in two different kinematic schemes, which allows us to make improved predictions for the asymmetry in the $p\bar p$ and $t\bar t$ rest frames as a function of the rapidity and invariant mass of the $t\bar t$ pair. Furthermore, we provide binned results which can be compared with the recent measurements of the forward-backward asymmetry in events with a large pair invariant mass or rapidity difference. Finally, we calculate at NLO+NNLL order the top-quark charge asymmetry at the LHC as a function of a lower rapidity cut-off for the top and antitop quarks.
    06/2011;
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    Article: Precision predictions for the t+t(bar) production cross section at hadron colliders
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    ABSTRACT: We make use of recent results in effective theory and higher-order perturbative calculations to improve the theoretical predictions of the top-quark pair production cross section at hadron colliders. In particular, we supplement the fixed-order NLO calculation with higher-order corrections from soft gluon resummation at NNLL accuracy. Uncertainties due to power corrections to the soft limit are estimated by combining results from single-particle inclusive and pair invariant-mass kinematics. We present our predictions as functions of the top-quark mass in both the pole scheme and the MS(bar) scheme. We also discuss the merits of using threshold masses as an alternative, and calculate the cross section with the top-quark mass defined in the 1S scheme as an illustrative example.
    05/2011;
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    Article: Updated Predictions for Higgs Production at the Tevatron and the LHC
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    ABSTRACT: We present updated predictions for the total cross section for Higgs boson production through gluon fusion at hadron colliders. In addition to renormalization-group improvement at next-to-next-to-next-to-leading logarithmic accuracy, we incorporate the two-loop electroweak corrections, which leads to the most precise predictions at present. Numerical results are given for Higgs masses between 115 GeV and 200 GeV at the Tevatron with \sqrt{s}=1.96 TeV and the LHC with \sqrt{s}=7-14 TeV.
    08/2010;
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    Article: Renormalization-Group Improved Predictions for Top-Quark Pair Production at Hadron Colliders
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    ABSTRACT: Precision predictions for phenomenologically interesting observables such as the t-tbar invariant mass distribution and forward-backward asymmetry in top-quark pair production at hadron colliders require control over the differential cross section in perturbative QCD. In this paper we improve existing calculations of the doubly differential cross section in the invariant mass and scattering angle by using techniques from soft-collinear effective theory to perform an NNLL resummation of threshold logarithms, which become large when the invariant mass M of the top-quark pair approaches the partonic center-of-mass energy. We also derive an approximate formula for the differential cross section at NNLO in fixed-order perturbation theory, which completely determines the coefficients multiplying the singular plus distributions. We then match our results in the threshold region with the exact results at NLO in fixed-order perturbation theory, and perform a numerical analysis of the invariant mass distribution, the total cross section, and the forward-backward asymmetry. We argue that these are the most accurate predictions available for these observables at present. Using MSTW2008NNLO parton distribution functions (PDFs) along with \alpha_s(M_Z)=0.117 and m_t=173.1 GeV, we obtain for the inclusive production cross sections at the Tevatron and LHC the values \sigma_{Tevatron} = (6.30 +-0.19 +0.31-0.23) pb and \sigma_{LHC} = (149 +- 7 +- 8) pb, where the first error results from scale variations while the second reflects PDF uncertainties. Comment: 61 pages, 18 figures, version to appear in JHEP
    03/2010;
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    Article: Renormalization-Group Improved Prediction for Higgs Production at Hadron Colliders
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    ABSTRACT: We use renormalization-group methods in effective field theory to improve the theoretical prediction for the cross section for Higgs-boson production at hadron colliders. In addition to soft-gluon resummation at NNNLL, we also resum enhanced contributions of the form (C_A\pi\alpha_s)^n, which arise in the analytic continuation of the gluon form factor to time-like momentum transfer. This resummation is achieved by evaluating the matching corrections arising at the Higgs-boson mass scale at a time-like renormalization point \mu^2<0, followed by renormalization-group evolution to \mu^2>0. We match our resummed result to NNLO fixed-order perturbation theory and give numerical predictions for the total production cross section as a function of the Higgs-boson mass. Resummation effects are significant even at NNLO, where our improved predictions for the cross sections at the Tevatron and the LHC exceed the fixed-order predictions by about 13% and 8%, respectively, for m_H=120 GeV. We also discuss the application of our technique to other time-like processes such as Drell-Yan production, e^+ e^- --> hadrons, and hadronic decays of the Higgs boson. Comment: 35 pages, 6 figures; v2: update to MSTW2008 PDFs, detailed comparison with moment-space formalism
    09/2008;
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    Article: Origin of the Large Perturbative Corrections to Higgs Production at Hadron Colliders
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    ABSTRACT: The very large K-factor for Higgs-boson production at hadron colliders is shown to result from enhanced perturbative corrections of the form (C_A\pi\alpha_s)^n, which arise in the analytic continuation of the gluon form factor to time-like momentum transfer. These terms are resummed to all orders in perturbation theory using the renormalization group. After the resummation, the K-factor for the production of a light Higgs boson at the LHC is reduced to a value close to 1.3.
    09/2008;
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    Article: Threshold expansion at order for the invariant mass distribution at hadron colliders
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    ABSTRACT: We calculate the leading contributions to the invariant mass distribution of top-quark pairs produced at the Tevatron and LHC, in the limit where the invariant mass of the pair approaches the partonic center-of-mass energy. Our results determine at NNLO in αs the coefficients of all singular plus distributions and scale-dependent logarithms in the differential partonic cross sections for . A numerical analysis showing the effects of the NNLO corrections on the central values and scale dependence of the invariant mass distribution is performed. The NNLO corrections are found to significantly enhance the cross section and reduce the perturbative uncertainties compared to the NLO calculation.
    Physics Letters B.

Institutions

  • 2008–2012
    • Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz
      • Institute of Physics
      Mainz, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany