title: W+ W- production at hadron colliders in next to next to leading order QCD.
abstract: Charged gauge boson pair production at the Large Hadron Collider allows detailed probes of the fundamental structure of electroweak interactions. We present precise theoretical predictions for on-shell W+ W- production that include, for the first time, QCD effects up to next to next to leading order in perturbation theory. As compared to next to leading order, the inclusive W+ W- cross section is enhanced by 9% at 7 TeV and 12% at 14 TeV. The residual perturbative uncertainty is at the 3% level. The severe contamination of the W+ W- cross section due to top-quark resonances is discussed in detail. Comparing different definitions of top-free W+ W- production in the four and five flavor number schemes, we demonstrate that top-quark resonances can be separated from the inclusive W+ W- cross section without a significant loss of theoretical precision.
authors.affiliation: Physik-Institut, Universität Zürich, CH-8057 Zürich, Switzerland.
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Gehrmann
authors.affiliation: Physik-Institut, Universität Zürich, CH-8057 Zürich, Switzerland.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Grazzini
authors.affiliation: Physik-Institut, Universität Zürich, CH-8057 Zürich, Switzerland.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kallweit
authors.affiliation: Physik-Institut, Universität Zürich, CH-8057 Zürich, Switzerland.
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Maierhöfer
authors.affiliation: PRISMA Cluster of Excellence, Institute of Physics, Johannes Gutenberg University, D-55099 Mainz, Germany.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: von Manteuffel
authors.affiliation: Physik-Institut, Universität Zürich, CH-8057 Zürich, Switzerland.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Pozzorini
authors.affiliation: Physik-Institut, Universität Zürich, CH-8057 Zürich, Switzerland.
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Rathlev
authors.affiliation: Physik-Institut, Universität Zürich, CH-8057 Zürich, Switzerland.
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Tancredi