Electroweak corrections to $Z$-boson hadroproduction at finite transverse momentum

Abstract

We calculate the full one-loop electroweak radiative corrections, of $\mathcal{O}({\alpha }^2{\alpha }_s)$, to the cross section of single $Z$-boson inclusive hadroproduction at finite transverse momentum ($p_T$). This includes the $\mathcal{O}(\alpha )$ corrections to $Z+j$ production, the $\mathcal{O}({\alpha }_s)$ corrections to $Z+\gamma$ production, and certain QCD-electroweak interference contributions involving a single quark trace. We recover the QCD and purely weak corrections and study the QED corrections and the QCD-electroweak interference contributions for the first time. We also consider direct and resolved photoproduction in elastic and inelastic scattering. We present $p_T$ and rapidity distributions for the experimental conditions at the Fermilab Tevatron and the CERN LHC and assess the significance of the various contributions.

Comments: 31 pages, 11 figures; discussion enhanced, figures added, references added and updated; accepted for publication in Nucl. Phys. B