Electroweak corrections to hadronic processes at TeV energy colliders

Nolten, Martin Richard (2006) Electroweak corrections to hadronic processes at TeV energy colliders. University of Southampton, Doctoral Thesis.

Record type: Thesis (Doctoral)

Abstract

We study the next to leading order (NLO) weak corrections (order α²_Sα_W) to a number of hadronic processes. We discover the weak correction to bb̄; production at Tevatron to be small (fractions of one percent) at inclusive level but potentially of some significance in the forward backward asymmetry. The correction to the total bb̄;production cross-section at LHC is also found to be small (-2%) but possibly large enough to be significant following NNLO QCD calculations. We find the total cross-sections for two jet production at both Tevatron and LHC to be significantly larger – up to -3% at Tevatron and up to -30% at LHC. Calculations of polarised observables are also performed for both RHIC and a hypothetical polarised LHC. We find weak corrections to these observables to be typically tens or even hundreds of percent. A calculation of the tt̄; production cross-section is also carried out. The corrections to a number of differential cross-sections for gg → tt̄; at LHC are found to be potentially significant – in the region of 5 to 10%. For qq̄; → tt̄; we find corrections of a similar magnitude.