Top-Quark Pair Production Beyond NLO

Cuny New York City College Of Technology, Brooklyn NY

Investigators

Abstract

This award funds the research activities of Professor Andrea Ferroglia at the New York City College of Technology (CUNY). The beginning of operations at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN is very likely to coincide with the beginning of a new chapter in the history of particle physics. One of the primary goals of the LHC is to study the phenomena which lead to the breaking of the electroweak symmetry, and therefore to search for the Higgs boson. In order to extract the most information from the data that the LHC will be providing, it is important to be able to obtain theoretical predictions which are at least as accurate as the expected experimental measurements. The main objective of Professor Ferroglia's research is to contribute to the calculation of the top-quark pair production beyond next-to-leading order (NLO). In particular, Professor Ferroglia plans to calculate two-loop matrix elements for the gluon-fusion and quark-annihilation channels, and study the resummation of large logarithmic corrections at next-to-next-to-leading logarithmic accuracy by applying a recently developed resummation procedure based on soft-collinear effective theory. These results will enable scientists to obtain precise theoretical predictions for some important top-quark observables that will be measured at the LHC. This project is also envisioned to have significant broader impacts. The proposed research plan will be carried out at New York City College of Technology (CUNY). This college plays a leading role in the education of minorities underrepresented in the sciences and engineering. Professor Ferroglia plans to contribute to the efforts of the college by mentoring groups of students who have an interest in particle physics. The goal of this activity will be to provide the students with a non-technical but logically coherent view of the current status of particle physics. The students will present the result of their work to the college community at large in dedicated events. Professor Ferroglia's research activities will also contribute to the development of the recently established Center for Theoretical Physics.