Vector-boson fusion Higgs production at N$^3$LO in QCD

Abstract

We calculate the next-to-next-to-next-to-leading-order (N$^3$LO) QCD corrections to inclusive vector-boson fusion (VBF) Higgs production at proton colliders, in the limit in which there is no colour exchange between the hadronic systems associated with the two colliding protons. We also provide differential cross sections for the Higgs transverse momentum and rapidity distributions. We find that the corrections are at the 1-2 permille level, well within the scale-uncertainty of the next-to-next-to-leading-order (NNLO) calculation. The associated scale-uncertainty of the N$^3$LO calculation is typically found to be below the 2 permille level. We also consider theoretical uncertainties due to missing higher order parton distribution functions, and provide an estimate of their importance.