QCD and electroweak corrections to WZ scattering at the LHC

Abstract

We present the first computation of the full next-to-leading-order QCD and electroweak corrections to the WZ scattering process at the LHC. All off-shell, gauge-boson-decay, and interference effects are taken into account for the process $\mathrm{p} \mathrm{p} \to μ^+μ^-\mathrm{e}^+ν_\mathrm{e} \mathrm{j} \mathrm{j} + X$ at the orders $\mathcal{O}{\left( α_\mathrm{s} α^6 \right)}$ and $\mathcal{O}{\left( α^7 \right)}$. The electroweak corrections feature the typical Sudakov behaviour towards high energy and amount to $-16\%$ relative to the electroweak contribution to the integrated cross section. Moreover, the corrections induce significant shape distortions in differential distributions. The next-to-leading-order analysis of the quark- and gluon-induced channels is supplemented by a leading-order study of all possible contributions to the full $4\ell+2\mbox{jets}$ production cross section in a realistic fiducial phase-space volume.

28 pages, 44 pdf figures; added more comments on the size of the EW corrections, improved readability of the figures, added $p_\mathrm{T}$ distributions of $\mathrm{W}$ and $\mathrm{Z}$, added comment on $\mathrm{tZj}$ background, version to appear in JHEP