Electroweak corrections to $pp\to {\mu }^{+}{\mu }^{-}{e}^{+}{e}^{-}+X$ at the LHC -- a Higgs background study

Abstract

The first complete calculation of the next-to-leading-order electroweak corrections to four-lepton production at the LHC is presented, where all off-shell effects of intermediate Z bosons and photons are taken into account. Focusing on the mixed final state ${\mu }^{+}{\mu }^{-}{e}^{+}{e}^{-}$, we study differential cross sections that are particularly interesting for Higgs-boson analyses. The electroweak corrections are divided into photonic and purely weak corrections. The former exhibit patterns familiar from similar W/Z-boson production processes with very large radiative tails near resonances and kinematical shoulders. The weak corrections are of the generic size of 5% and show interesting variations, in particular a sign change between the regions of resonant Z-pair production and the Higgs signal.

Comments: 5 pages, latex, 3 figures