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Title: The W boson production cross section at the LHC through O(alpha**2(s)

Journal Article · · Phys.Rev.Lett.96:231803,2006

We compute the {Omicron}({alpha}{sub s}{sup 2}) QCD corrections to the fully differential cross-section pp {yields} WX {yields} {ell}{nu}X, retaining all effects from spin correlations. The knowledge of these corrections makes it possible to calculate with high precision the W boson production rate and acceptance at the LHC, subject to realistic cuts on the lepton and missing energy distributions. For certain choices of cuts we find large corrections when going from next-to-leading order (NLO) to next-to-next-to-leading order (NNLO) in perturbation theory. These corrections are significantly larger than those obtained by parton-shower event generators merged with NLO calculations. Our calculation may be used to assess and significantly reduce the QCD uncertainties in the many studies of W boson production planned at the LHC.

Research Organization:
Fermi National Accelerator Lab. (FNAL), Batavia, IL (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE
DOE Contract Number:
AC02-07CH11359
OSTI ID:
897291
Report Number(s):
FERMILAB-PUB-06-059-T; arXiv eprint number hep-ph/0603182; TRN: US0701381
Journal Information:
Phys.Rev.Lett.96:231803,2006, Journal Name: Phys.Rev.Lett.96:231803,2006
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English