NLO distributions for Higgs production at the LHC

Abstract

We report on results for the NLO corrected differential distributions $dσ/dp_T$ and $dσ/dy$ for the process $p + p\to H + 'X'$, where $p_T$ and $y$ are the transverse momentum and rapidity of the Higgs-boson $H$ respectively and $X$ denotes the inclusive hadronic state. All QCD partonic subprocesses have been included. The computation is carried out in the limit that the top-quark mass $m_t \to \infty$. Our calculations reveal that the dominant subprocess is given by $g + g \to H + 'X'$ but the reaction $g + q(\bar q) \to H + 'X'$ is not negligible. Also the $K$-factor representing the ratio between the next-to-leading order and leading order differential distributions varies from 1.4 to 1.7 depending on the kinematic region and choice of parton densities.