Higgs Boson Cross Section from CTEQ-TEA Global Analysis
Abstract
We study the uncertainties of the Higgs boson production cross section through the gluon fusion subprocess at the LHC (with s=7, 8 and 14 TeV) arising from the uncertainties of the parton distribution functions (PDFs) and of the value of the strong coupling constant αs(MZ). These uncertainties are computed by two complementary approaches, based on the Hessian and the Lagrange Multiplier methods within the CTEQ-TEA global analysis framework. We find that their predictions for the Higgs boson cross section are in good agreement. Furthermore, the result of the Lagrange Multiplier method supports the prescriptions we have previously provided for using the Hessian method to calculate the combined PDF and αs uncertainties, and to estimate the uncertainties at the 68\% confidence level by scaling them from the 90\% confidence level.