Monte Carlo simulations of Higgs-boson production at the LHC with the KrkNLO method

Abstract

We present numerical tests and predictions of the KrkNLO method for matching of NLO QCD corrections to hard processes with LO parton shower Monte Carlo generators (NLO+PS). This method was described in detail in our previous publications, where it was also compared with other NLO+PS matching approaches (MC@NLO and POWHEG) as well as fixed-order NLO and NNLO calculations. Here we concentrate on presenting some numerical results (cross sections and distributions) for $Z/{\gamma }^{\ast }$ (Drell-Yan) and Higgs-boson production processes at the LHC. The Drell--Yan process is used mainly to validate the KrkNLO implementation in the Herwig 7 program with respect to the previous implementation in Sherpa. We also show predictions for this process with the new, complete, MC-scheme parton distribution functions and compare them with our previously published results. Then, we present the first results of the KrkNLO method for Higgs production in gluon-gluon fusion at the LHC and compare them with MC@NLO and POWHEG predictions from Herwig 7 fixed-order results from HNNLO and a resummed calculation from HqT, as well as with experimental data from the ATLAS collaboration.

Comments: 21 pages, 9 figures, version published in EPJC