Christoph Haitz

A bstract: We present a calculation of next-to-leading-order electroweak corrections to the vector-boson scattering (VBS) process resulting in leptonically decaying W and Z bosons in association with two jets at the LHC. The VBS process is computed for both polarised and unpolarised intermediate bosons, exploiting the pole approximation and the separation of helicity states in tree-level and one-loop amplitudes. A phenomenological analysis is carried out for a realistic fiducial setup at a 13.6 TeV LHC collision energy, highlighting different patterns for the various polarisation states both at integrated and at differential level. This study provides theoretical predictions that are necessary to perform a sound characterisation of the spin structure of VBS processes with full LHC data.

Providing accurate theoretical predictions in the Standard Model for processes with polarised electroweak bosons is crucial to understand more in-depth the electroweak-symmetry breaking mechanism and to enhance the sensitivity to potential new-physics effects. Motivated by the rapidly increasing number of polarisation analyses of di-boson processes with LHC data, we carry out a comprehensive study of the inclusive production of two polarised Z bosons in the decay channel with four charged leptons. We perform a detailed comparison of fixed-order predictions obtained with various Monte Carlo programs which rely on different signal-definition strategies, assessing non-resonant and interference effects by contrasting polarised results with unpolarised and full off-shell ones. For the first time, we accomplish the combination of NNLO QCD and NLO EW corrections, setting the new state-of-the-art perturbative accuracy for polarised Z-boson pairs at the LHC. The impact of parton-shower matching and multi-jet merging is investigated by scrutinising calculations obtained with event generators that are typically used in experimental analyses. Integrated and differential results are discussed in a realistic fiducial setup and compared to publicly available ATLAS results.

We present a calculation of next-to-leading-order electroweak corrections to the vector-boson scattering (VBS) process resulting in leptonically decaying W and Z bosons in association with two jets at the LHC. The VBS process is computed for both polarised and unpolarised intermediate bosons, exploiting the pole approximation and the separation of helicity states in tree-level and one-loop amplitudes. A phenomenological analysis is carried out for a realistic fiducial setup at a 13.6 TeV LHC collision energy, highlighting different patterns for the various polarisation states both at integrated and at differential level. This study provides theoretical predictions that are necessary to perform a sound characterisation of the spin structure of VBS processes with full LHC data.

We present the first calculation of same-sign WW scattering at the LHC in the fully leptonic decay channel including the modelling of polarisation for intermediate electroweak bosons and radiative corrections up to NLO EW+QCD accuracy. The predictions rely on a pole expansion and on the split of polarisation states at matrix-element level. Doubly-polarised and unpolarised signals are investigated together with full off-shell results. A detailed phenomenlogical analysis is carried out focusing on differential observables that discriminate between polarisation states, paving the way for refined polarisation-oriented analyses of vector-boson scattering with Run-3 LHC data.

In this letter we present results for next-to-leading-order electroweak corrections to doubly polarised W$^+$W$^-$ production at the LHC in the fully leptonic decay channel. We model the production and the decay of two polarised W bosons in the double-pole approximation, including factorisable real and virtual electroweak corrections, and separating polarisation states at amplitude level. We obtain integrated and differential predictions for polarised signals in a realistic fiducial setup.

Understanding the polarisation structure and providing precise predictions for multi-boson processes at the LHC is becoming urgent in the light of the upcoming run-3 and high-luminosity data. The CMS and ATLAS collaborations have already started using polarised predictions to perform template fits of the data, getting access to the polarisation of W and Z bosons. So far, only fully-leptonic decay channels have been considered in this perspective. The natural step forward is the investigation of hadronic decays of electroweak bosons. In this work, we compute NLO QCD corrections to the production and decay of WZ pairs at the LHC in final states with two charged leptons and jets. The calculation relies on the double-pole approximation and the separation of polarised states at the level of Standard Model amplitudes. The presented NLO-accurate results are necessary building blocks for a broad understanding and precise modelling of polarised di-boson production in semi-leptonic decay channels.

Understanding the polarization structure and providing precise predictions for multiboson processes at the LHC is becoming urgent in the light of the upcoming run-3 and high-luminosity data. The CMS and ATLAS collaborations have already started using polarized predictions to perform template fits of the data, getting access to the polarization of W and Z bosons. So far, only fully leptonic decay channels have been considered in this perspective. The natural step forward is the investigation of hadronic decays of electroweak bosons. In this work, we compute NLO QCD corrections to the production and decay of WZ pairs at the LHC in final states with two charged leptons and jets. The calculation relies on the double-pole approximation and the separation of polarized states at the level of Standard Model amplitudes. The presented NLO-accurate results are necessary building blocks for a broad understanding and precise modeling of polarized diboson production in semileptonic decay channels.