Abstract: We present the first comprehensive analysis of the unitarity thresholds and anomalous thresholds of scattering amplitudes at two loops and beyond based on the loop- tree duality, and show how non-causal unphysical thresholds are locally cancelled in an efficient way when the forest of all the dual on-shell cuts is considered as one. We also prove that soft and collinear singularities at two loops and beyond are restricted to a compact region of the loop three-momenta, which is a necessary condition for implementing a local cancellation of loop infrared singularities with the ones appearing in real emission; without relying on a subtraction formalism.

Abstract: The t (t) over bar + jet + X differential cross-section in proton-proton collisions at 7 TeV centre of mass energy is investigated with respect to its sensitivity to the top quark mass. The analysis includes higher order QCD corrections at NLO. The impact of the renormalization scale (mu(R)), the factorization (mu(F)) scale and of the choice of different proton's PDF (parton distribution function) has been evaluated. In this study it is concluded that differential jet rates offer a promising option for alternative mass measurements of the top quark, with theoretical uncertainties below 1 GeV.

Abstract: The ratio of production cross sections of the W and Z bosons with exactly one associated jet is presented as a function of jet transverse momentum threshold. The measurement has been designed to maximise cancellation of experimental and theoretical uncertainties, and is reported both within a particle-level kinematic range corresponding to the detector acceptance and as a total cross-section ratio. Results are obtained with the ATLAS detector at the LHC in pp collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 7 TeV using an integrated luminosity of 33 pb(-1). The results are compared with perturbative leading-order, leading-log, and next-to-leading-order QCD predictions, and are found to agree within experimental and theoretical uncertainties. The ratio is measured for events with a single jet with p(T) > 30 GeV to be 8.73 +/- 0.30(stat) +/- 0.40(syst) in the electron channel, and 8.49 +/- 0.23(stat) +/- 0.33(syst) in the muon channel.

Abstract: We provide three Fortran programs which evaluate the QCD analytic (holomorphic) couplings A(v)(Q(2)) for complex or real squared momenta Q(2). These couplings are holomorphic analogs of the powers a(Q(2))(v) of the underlying perturbative QCD (pQCD) coupling a(Q(2)) equivalent to alpha(s)(Q(2))/pi, in three analytic QCD models (anQCD): Fractional Analytic Perturbation Theory (FAPT), Two-delta analytic QCD (2 delta anQCD), and Massive Perturbation Theory (MPT). The index v can be noninteger. The provided programs do basically the same job as the Mathematica package anQCD.m published by us previously (Ayala and Cvetic, 2015), but are now written in Fortran. Program summary Program title: AanQCDext Catalogue identifier: AEYKv10 Program summary URL: http://cpc.cs.qub.ac.uk/summaries/AEYICv1_0.html Program obtainable from: CPC Program Library, Queen's University, Belfast, N. Ireland Licensing provisions: Standard CPC licence, http://cpc.cs.qub.ac.uk/licence/licence.html No. of lines in distributed program, including test data, etc.: 12105 No. of bytes in distributed program, including test data, etc.: 98822 Distribution format: tar.gz Programming language: Fortran. Computer: Any work-station or PC where Fortran 95/200312008 (gfortran) is running. Operating system: Operating system Linux (Ubuntu and Scientific Linux), Windows (in all cases using gfortran). Classification: 11.1, 11.5. Nature of problem: Calculation of values of the running analytic couplings A(v)(Q(2); N-f) for general complex squared momenta Q(2) equivalent to -q(2), in three analytic QCD models, where A(v)(Q(2); N-f) is the analytic (holomorphic) analog of the power (alpha(s)(Q(2); N-f)/pi)(v). Here, A(v)(Q(2); N-f) is a holomorphic function in the Q(2) complex plane, with the exception of the negative semiaxis (-infinity, -M-thr(2)], reflecting the analyticity properties of the spacelike renormalization invariant quantities D(Q(2)) in QCD. In contrast, the perturbative QCD power (alpha(s)(Q(2); N-f)/pi)(v) has singularities even outside the negative semiaxis (Landau ghosts). The three considered models are: Analytic Perturbation theory (APT); Two-delta analytic QCD (2 delta anQCD); Massive Perturbation Theory (MPT). We refer to Ref. [1] for more details and literature. Solution method: The Fortran programs for FAPT and 2 delta anQCD models contain routines and functions needed to perform two-dimensional numerical integrations involving the spectral function, in order to evaluate A(v)(Q(2)) couplings. In MPT model, one-dimensional numerical integration involving A(1)(Q(2)) is sufficient to evaluate any A(v)(Q(2)) coupling. Restrictions: For unphysical choices of the input parameters the results are meaningless. When Q(2) is close to the cut region of the couplings (Q(2) real negative), the calculations can take more time and can have less precision. Running time: For evaluation of a set of about 10 related couplings, the times vary in the range t similar to 10(1)-10(2) s. MPT requires less time, t similar to 1-10(1) s. References: [1] C. Ayala and G. Cvetic, anQCD: a Mathematica package for calculations in general analytic QCD models, Comput. Phys. Commun. 190 (2015) 182.

Abstract: Higgs-pair production via gluon fusion is the dominant production mechanism of Higgs-boson pairs at hadron colliders. In this work, we present details of our numerical determination of the full next-to-leading-order (NLO) QCD corrections to the leading top-quark loops. Since gluon fusion is a loop-induced process at leading order, the NLO calculation requires the calculation of massive two-loop diagrams with up to four different mass/energy scales involved. With the current methods, this can only be done numerically, if no approximations are used. We discuss the setup and details of our numerical integration. This will be followed by a phenomenological analysis of the NLO corrections and their impact on the total cross section and the invariant Higgs-pair mass distribution. The last part of our work will be devoted to the determination of the residual theoretical uncertainties with special emphasis on the uncertainties originating from the scheme and scale dependence of the (virtual) top mass. The impact of the trilinear Higgs-coupling variation on the total cross section will be discussed.