Heavy quark radiation in NLO+PS POWHEG generators

Abstract

In this paper we deal with radiation from heavy quarks in the context of next-to-leading order calculations matched to parton shower generators. A new algorithm for radiation from massive quarks is presented that has considerable advantages over the one previously employed. We implement the algorithm in the framework of the ${\tt POWHEG-BOX}$, and compare it with the previous one in the case of the ${\tt hvq}$ generator for bottom production in hadronic collisions, and in the case of the ${\tt bb4l}$ generator for top production and decay.