Dimension-8 operators in W + W − production via gluon fusion
Abstract We investigate the impact of dimension-8 operators on W + W − production at the LHC for the incoming gluon-gluon channel. To this end, we have identified all dimension-8 CP-even operators contributing to the process in question, and computed the corresponding tree-level helicity amplitudes...
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| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
SpringerOpen
2025-06-01
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| Series: | Journal of High Energy Physics |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP06(2025)111 |
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| Summary: | Abstract We investigate the impact of dimension-8 operators on W + W − production at the LHC for the incoming gluon-gluon channel. To this end, we have identified all dimension-8 CP-even operators contributing to the process in question, and computed the corresponding tree-level helicity amplitudes for fully-leptonic decays of the W bosons. These are implemented in the program MCFM-RE, which automatically incorporates the effect of a jet-veto to reduce the otherwise overwhelming t t ¯ $$ t\overline{t} $$ background. We find that, unless we break the hierarchy of the effective field theory (EFT), the interference of the dimension-8 operators with the Standard Model is negligible across the considered distributions. This justifies including the square of dimension-6 operators when performing EFT fits with this channel. We then present new constraints on CP-even and CP-odd dimension-6 operators within the EFT regime. Lastly, we postulate a scenario in which the hierarchy of the EFT is broken, justified by the strong constraints on dimension-6 operators from existing on-shell Higgs data. In this scenario, we discuss the constraints that can be reasonably set on CP-even dimension-8 operators with current and future data. We remark that the effect of the jet-veto on the ability to constrain new physics in the W + W − channel is quite dramatic and must be properly taken into account. |
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| ISSN: | 1029-8479 |