Gluon fusion into Higgs pairs at NLO QCD and the top mass scheme

Abstract

We present the calculation of the full next-to-leading order (NLO) QCD corrections to Higgs boson pair production via gluon fusion at the LHC, including the exact top-mass dependence in the two-loop virtual and one-loop real corrections. This is the first independent cross-check of the NLO QCD corrections presented in the literature before. Our calculation relies on numerical integrations of Feynman integrals, stabilised with integration-by-parts and a Richardson extrapolation to the narrow width approximation. We present results for the total cross section as well as for the invariant Higgs-pair-mass distribution at the LHC, including for the first time a study of the uncertainty due to the scheme and scale choice for the top mass in the loops.