Next-to-leading order corrections to W+2 jet and Z+2 jet production at hadron colliders

Abstract

We report on QCD radiative corrections to the processes p pbar --> W + 2 jets and p pbar --> Z + 2 jets at the Tevatron. These processes are included in the Monte Carlo program MCFM, which allows the calculation of any infra-red finite variable at next-to-leading order. Due to a better theoretical description of jets at next-to-leading order, some distributions exhibit significant corrections. As expected, the unphysical dependence of theoretical predictions upon the renormalization and factorization scales is greatly reduced compared to leading order. As an example of the predictions that may now be made with MCFM, we present a next-to-leading order estimate of the heavy flavor content of jets produced in association with vector bosons.