Next-to-next-to-leading order event generation for $VH$ production with $H\to b\bar{b}$ decay

Abstract

We consider the Higgsstrahlung process in hadronic collisions and present the computation of next-to-next-to-leading order predictions matched to parton showers for both production and $H\to b\bar{b}$ decay employing the MiNNLO${}_{\mathrm{PS}}$ method. We present predictions for $ZH$ and $W^{\pm }H$ production including spin correlations and off-shell effects by calculating the full processes $pp\to {\ell }^{+}{\ell }^{-}H\to {\ell }^{+}{\ell }^{-}b\bar{b}$, $pp\to {\nu }_{\ell }{\bar{\nu }}_{\ell }H\to {\nu }_{\ell }{\bar{\nu }}_{\ell }b\bar{b}$ and $pp\to {\ell }^{\pm }{\nu }_{\ell }H\to {\ell }^{\pm }{\nu }_{\ell }b\bar{b}$ in the narrow-width approximation for the Higgs boson. For the $W^{\pm }H$ process, NNLO+PS accuracy in production and decay is achieved for the first time. Our calculations are validated against earlier simulations in the NNLOPS approach that includes NNLO corrections via multi-differential reweighting. The new MiNNLO${}_{\mathrm{PS}}$ generators for these processes, which evaluate NNLO corrections on-the-fly in the event generation, will supersede those earlier calculations. Our predictions are in good agreement with recent measurements of the Higgsstrahlung cross sections.

Comments: 37 pages, 8 figures, 4 tables