Higgs Bosons, Heavy Quarks and Soft Gluons: Resummation-Improved Predictions for Associated Higgs Production Processes at the LHC

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The 2012 discovery of a Higgs particle at the LHC was a groundbreaking achievement in the history of particle physics. The current imperative of the LHC research programme is the determination of the properties of this new particle, in a quest to establish how closely it resembles the Higgs boson of the Standard Model (SM) of particle physics. Apart from tour de force experimental measurements, the determination of Higgs properties requires knowing corresponding theoretical predictions with high precision. One of the most highly anticipated measurements is the measurement of the coupling of the Higgs particle to top quarks. This coupling can be measured directly in the process of Higgs production in association with a top-antitop quark pair. Production processes involving the coupling of a Higgs boson to heavy quarks play also a very important role in the supersymmetric extensions of the SM of particle physics. Searches for signals of physics beyond the Standard Model and in particular for particles predicted by supersymmetric models constitutes another major research activity at the LHC for the years to come. The main goal of this project is the improvement of the accuracy of the predictions for the production of the SM Higgs boson as well as supersymmetric Higgs bosons in association with heavy quarks at the LHC. Specifically, the improvement will be achieved by calculating the effect of higher-order corrections in perturbative Quantum Chromodynamics due to the emission of soft and collinear gluons. These corrections will be treated systematically to all orders with the help of resummation techniques. The first few objectives formulated within this project relate to the associated production of the SM Higgs boson with top quarks. They focus on calculations necessary to achieve the next-to-leading-logarithmic accuracy of resummed predictions for the total cross section as well as various differential distributions. The calculations proposed in this part of the project will be the first application of analytical resummation to the associated Higgs production with top quarks in hadronic collisions. Investigating the impact of resummed soft gluon corrections on the predictions for the production of Higgs bosons of the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model is the subject of another set of objectives in this project. Also in this case, theoretical results will be provided for the total cross sections as well as differential distributions. Apart from analytical calculations, numerical simulations will be performed and public codes will be delivered for all processes considered in this project.